A Mile In Her Shoes

Kim Starr, a successful Mary Kay Independent National Sales Director, understands the importance of putting her best foot forward.  She has built her career developing relationships and traveling domestically and internationally to give talks about how to improve those relationships, but knows how important it is to represent the product she sells by always looking her best.  She dresses the part from head to toe and always wears heels because she feels it ‘pulls the outfit together.’

In November of 2015, Kim started to feel like hip pain was adversely affecting her ability to put her best foot forward; she was in the touring the Vatican on a trip to Rome with one of her sales director during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.  She walked through St. Peter’s door under a super moon but had to stop and rest as her hip pain had flared up so dramatically she simply could not continue on without taking a moment to recover.  The hip pain stemmed from a traumatic fall she suffered a couple of decades previously.  At the time, the doctor said that the fall was so severe that she eventually would have more major issues with the hip.  Kim realized the injury had finally caught up with her.

Kim tried to continue to manage but in early 2017, after nearly turning down an important work trip simply because she was worried about the pain, she knew she could not continue on without getting surgery.  But Kim was scared of the painful and lengthy a traditional hip replacement.  Kim knew how important it would be for her to get back on her feet quickly; the longer she had to spend recovering, the more business she would lose.  The longer it took her to get back to looking her best, the longer it would be before she was performing her best.  She turned to her sister, an occupational therapist, for advice who researched and found Dr. Berger and suggested Kim go see him.

While still nervous, Kim elected to undergo minimally invasive joint replacement surgery after her consultation with Dr. Berger because she knew her recovery period would be shorter, given his surgical technique.  And much to her expectation, Kim’s recovery period was exemplary; just three weeks after her replacement surgery, she returned to wearing wedges.  Shortly after that, she returned to her heels.  Kim has resumed her extensive traveling schedule and is pleased to be doing so looking—and feeling—as put together as she needs to be.