Content area
Full Text
This blog is going to read a bit like my mind felt when I returned from IHRSA 2014: full, and like I had been all over the place. The fitness tracking system that I began using the week of IHRSA can attest that I was all over the place at the conference. My device logged about 14,000 steps each day while I was there. That's pretty good for someone who is mostly deskbound in her job, and it included flight time, sitting during several sessions and keynotes, standing at booths and receptions, and foregoing my usual daily workouts.
Let's start with those receptions. Who didn't have at least one reception to attend each night? I'm going to start with my final reception of the show (actually, it was more of a dinner) because it was the most special one: the Bash for Augie's Quest. I've attended all but one of the nine Bashes, and I have to admit that I doubted that Augie Nieto, who started these fundraising events for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after being diagnosed with the disease nine years ago, would still be with us today. ALS tends to take people's lives after a short five years.
However, Nieto is not only here, but he also seems to be improving. He actually walked on the stage this year. It wasn't a full stride on his own. He used a walker and had some assistance, but considering that two years ago he was using a ventilator and could only move his toes, his efforts last week were a tremendous accomplishment that the crowd at the Bash rewarded with a standing ovation. Nieto has been taking some experimental drugs that have helped, but he also has been working out...