Shelley Washington is unstoppable.
"After I retired, I spent like 10 years cycling and being a gym bunny after dancing all those years," said Washington.
She stays in motion even after a 40-year-long dance career. The former ballerina is no stranger to pain, until a few years ago.
"I think there's a point, you know, where the pain is too much. I really started limping,” she said.
Washington couldn't perform the simplest tasks, like walking. So, she went to see a doctor.
"The doctor looked at my X-rays, another doctor, and he said, 'you know, you need to get that hip replaced.' And I was like, 'no I'm not! I can still put my leg behind my head and I'm doing all this stuff. What are you talking about?'" she said.
Washington wanted to get moving sooner, so Texas Orthopedics’ Dr. Tyler Goldberg suggested outpatient hip surgery.
"The ideal patient for outpatient is surgery is one who is physiologically young,” he said, "someone who doesn't have a significant of medical comorbidities, like diabetes and hypertension and things like that."
He installed the new hip without cutting through the muscles, which helped Washington recover within minutes.
"Amazing and you know, like everything you do, progress,” she exclaimed. “So, like the first day, he already has you doing exercises on the bed. And then, the next day you go, 'my hip is never and wow! WOW! My hip is moving!'"
Dr. Goldberg said getting patients up and moving sooner helps with the pain.
"The pain level just goes remarkably down so that they don't even need any of that narcotic medicine that we have for them," he said.
Aside from less pain, having patients move sooner also helps prevent blood clots. Blood clots can travel to the lungs, which can be deadly.