A Professional Photographer Talks About His Two Total Hip Replacements at The American Hip Institute
"My name is Mike Stahlschmidt, I'm a professional photographer. I run a photo agency called Sideline Sports Photography. I have worked full-time in motorsports and also in soccer professionally for the last 31 years.
I was in a bad accident in 1999, a snowmobile accident and damaged my left hip. It slowly progressed from that hospital visit for other injuries and I started to have severe hip pain in 2004. It really was a progression of more pain over time.
This type of hip pain is really insane I've had a lot of injuries in my life, unfortunately, but you know it's whether you're sitting, standing, walking laying in a bed, and it's constant. And being self-employed, with the photo agency, and my income detrimentally hurt if I didn't continue to work, I decided to have both hips replaced at the same time, which most surgeons would not do.
After talking to my surgeon heavily about it, he agreed to do it, and I was shocked myself how quickly I was able to recover. I think it is partly due to the geometry of the surgery that my surgeon did - everything was in the right place, my feet were facing the correct direction, and my everything felt normal, but without pain. I was medically cleared to drive two weeks post bilateral hip surgeries.
Now I can function with both of my feet perfectly, and it blew me away, just an 100% 'plus surgery', I couldn't be happier!"
- Michael Stahlschmidt