On May 3, Homewood, 62, had surgery to replace both of his hips. By the next morning, he’d asked to be taken off his morphine IV, which made him nauseous and groggy. Instead, he wanted Tylenol.

“Are you sure?” his nurses asked. “Yes, I’m fine,” Homewood said.

The next day, he used a walker to scoot down the hall. He climbed steps in the physical therapy room. When asked how he felt, Homewood said something he hadn’t said in five years.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

How did a self-described “chicken” walk out of the hospital after a procedure that usually limits people’s mobility for months?

Homewood is part of a small but growing number of hip replacement candidates who are opting for anterior hip replacement surgery, a technique that allows surgeons to access the joint from the front, not the back or the side.

Unlike traditional posterior replacements or lateral replacements, the anterior incision does not separate any muscles, which means shorter recovery time and, some patients say, less pain.

Click here to access the full article, courtesy of The Gainesville Sun.