A “lifelong Kansas kid,” Danny N. had always enjoyed getting outside as much as possible. Growing up, sports were his thing – football, basketball, baseball, swimming. At 29, he took up running and ran a couple half marathons.

Married with two kids and running his own company, Relev8 IT Group, in Salina, KS, Danny was used to crawling around and maneuvering in tight spaces to service client needs. He had never experienced mobility issues until December of 2022 when he was working and bent down to crawl under a desk.

“It felt like cramps with a muscle twinge in my hip flexor in the front with pain on the side and in the glutes,” he said. “It was a pain I could never massage deep enough to get rid of.”

Danny tried resting and stretching and even saw a physical therapist for strengthening exercises. Not finding relief, he went to a doctor who took an X-ray and diagnosed Danny with osteoarthritis. His right hip was bone-on-bone, and his left hip was not far behind.

Now knowing he needed a hip replacement, Danny spoke with a friend in Wichita who recommended Dr. Damion Walker at Kansas Spine & Specialty Hospital.

“I got in right away,” Danny said. “Dr. Walker looked at my X-rays, confirmed the original diagnosis and we scheduled my right hip replacement for July of 2023.”

“When the doctor says you need a hip replacement, that’s not a good moment,” Danny said. “But I liked Dr. Walker’s personality and experience, and I appreciated him being straightforward and honest and saying this is what needed to happen. He made me feel very comfortable with the decision to move forward.”

After his first successful surgery, Danny joked that he would get another hip replacement “in a heartbeat.”

“That’s because the amount of pain and what it limited me to was worse than the physical discomfort to get it repaired,” he said. “The experience of getting my first hip repaired and the relief afterward made my second hip replacement an easy decision.”

Danny chose to have that surgery in November 2024 before the pain even started. “I wasn’t going back to the pain mode again if I could help it,” Danny said. “Being the only person in my firm, I picked a time that worked best for both my work and personal schedules.”

Both surgeries were performed utilizing the Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery System, which offers patients faster recovery times due to smaller incisions and decreased risk of injury to adjacent healthy tissues.

“Dr. Walker shared his experience with the robotic-arm assisted system and his staff made sure I understood and prepared for the entire process,” Danny said. “You can see that they’ve been down this road before and have all the information you need to have a successful surgery.”

Before his first surgery, Danny couldn’t walk any distance, sit still in a movie theater or get in and out of a booth at a restaurant. Now, with two new hips, he goes for long walks and finds his work much easier.

“I can get up and down again to do my work, get under tables to hook things up and carry things around,” Danny said. “I can sit at a booth or table at a restaurant and not think about how long I can sit or how I’m going to get up.”

Danny has also returned to his volunteer work building ramps with AMBUCS and has even taken up ballroom dancing with his wife. “I don’t want to be the person who sits on the sidelines,” he said.

Danny said his experience with Dr. Walker and Kansas Spine & Specialty Hospital was as good as he could have hoped for.

“Dr. Walker and his staff were professional, courteous and did what they said they were going to do,” Danny said. “My experience was top-notch.”

“Now I can walk; I can dance; I can sit still in a movie theater,” Danny said. “My mobility is important to me. Because I was active, then found myself unable to move or even sit down and watch TV, I felt like a total waste. Now I can do more thanks to Dr. Walker and Kansas Spine. I like to say that I’ve had all my hips done there!”