MADISON, Wis. -- It's been nine months since Meriter Hospital led the nation doing some of the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved hip resurfacing procedures.

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Dr. John Rogerson was the second orthopedic surgeon in the country to perform the Birmingham procedure, WISC-TV reported.

Since that time, 131 patients are resuming their lives with the metal-on-metal ball joint.

For chiropractor Dan Soderholm, it changed his life.

"I have no pain whatsoever," said Soderholm. "When I'm getting in and out of the car, taking the dog for a walk, mowing the lawn, all that stuff just doesn't bother me anymore."

Soderholm waited 10 years before hip surgery, hoping something better could come along. It finally did.

Soderholm had the procedure on a Friday morning and was on his feet walking by that afternoon, WISC-TV reported.

"The nurses helped me up and said, 'Now stand and just try to distribute your weight equally,'" said Soderholm. "Literally, the pain was gone then, and it's never come back."

Rogerson said in his 27 years as an orthopedic surgeon, he's never seen a surgery so consistently successful as hip resurfacing.

"It's about the most fun way to make a living because the patients are just ecstatic with being able to get back to the level that they've had before," said Rogerson.

That's because a resurfaced hip keeps the patients' own bones. It simply places a metal-on-metal ball bearing right on top of the patient's own joint, he siad.

"Routinely at about three weeks most patients are walking without crutches and are pretty happy with the result," said Rogerson.

Since June, Rogerson's schedule has booked. He performs six hip-resurfacing procedures every week. His office fields dozens of phone calls a day from patients all over the country, WISC-TV reported.

He said patients are choosing to have the procedure done at Meriter Hospital because of the unique rehabilitation, appropriately called hip hab.

"There's an apartment there with a kitchen and their wife can be with them or significant other," said Rogerson. "They're in the pool on day three doing physical therapy. By the time that week cycle is up they're walking and just kind of using the crutches for fun really."

A hip resurfacing procedure was first introduced in the 1970s, but had little success because of the material used to create the ball joint. There are other types of hip resurfacing procedures performed locally and across the country, but only the Birmingham hip resurfacing procedure has FDA approval.