In his words — M. Atnipp, Sterling Ridge patient. Medical terms are explained in brackets. Individual results vary; this is one patient's experience.
The years of guessing
It started in my early forties: a strange, deep pain in my hip that would sometimes shoot straight down my leg. I did what most people do. I saw chiropractors around the area. I tried physical therapy. I tried every kind of pain relief I could get my hands on. Some of it helped for a week. None of it answered the question, and none of it lasted.
Looking back, the problem was never the treatment. It was that nobody had actually found out what was wrong.
One MRI, one answer
When I finally came to Sterling Ridge, they sat me down, listened, and ordered an MRI. That was the difference. The scan came back quickly, and so did the answer: avascular necrosis, or AVN. [The blood supply to the ball of the hip joint fails and the bone begins to collapse. It can happen at any age and it does not heal on its own.] I needed a hip replacement.
I was shocked. I was 45 years old. That's something that happens to people twenty or thirty years older than me. It had never once crossed my mind.
“Years of guessing, and it took one MRI to tell me what was actually wrong.”
Surgery day was the easy part
The procedure itself was, frankly, amazing. I was up on my feet that same afternoon. I went home that evening and slept in my own bed. [Sterling Ridge performs most hip replacements as outpatient surgery at its own surgery center; qualified patients go home the same day.]
Ninety days
Then I followed the physical therapy program they built for me, step by step, and I didn't skip steps. Within 90 days I was moving normally again and walking two to three miles several times a week. [The rehab team works in the same building as the surgeons and shares the same chart, so the plan changes as the patient does.]
Six months: back on the course
By six months my flexibility had come back and I was on the golf course again, walking it, not riding it.
I can't say my golf game was any better. But I was out there, enjoying a round and walking the whole thing, for the first time in years. That was the point.
— M. Atnipp
“I can't say I was any better at golf. But I was walking the course again. That was the point.”
What his story tells you about yours
If any of this sounds familiar
Start with the honest self-assessment our surgeons use: five minutes, seven questions, no appointment. Or read exactly what a hip replacement at Sterling Ridge involves before you talk to anyone.
Patient story by M. Atnipp, shared with written permission. Medical notes reviewed by Keith W.V. Johnson, MD, FAAOS · Updated September 28, 2026