HME in Action

No, this isn’t another reminder about becoming politically active, although I will get a plug in right here for doing so. Building relationships with your state and federal legislators is, of course, the way to take control of your company’s future.

But for what I’m writing about today, you already are involved.

Earlier this month, my Aunt Helen turned 90. Beyond that impressive life milestone, she’s had something of a medical journey as well. I’ve told you about my aunt before. She’s struggled with heart problems, has been on and off oxygen and, at age 87 after a fall, had emergency brain surgery. The best part of the story is that she has fully recovered after several near misses. My family thinks she may have 29 lives.

To celebrate Aunt Helen’s 90th, more than 40 of us met in the cedar-scented mountain town of Brevard, N.C., for a big Labor Day party.

We laughed. We talked. We oohed over the newest family baby (little month-old Frank Austin) and aahed over my cousin Donna’s gourmet cooking. We toasted an upcoming wedding (Reina and John). We browsed at a roadside market for local farm-grown fare (try a delicious Candy Stripe heirloom tomato if you get a chance). We went out to eat. We had a huge cake for Aunt Helen to share with her friends. We even stopped in at Caesar’s Head, a granite-browed overlook close to the Eastern U.S. Continental Divide (3,208 feet up).

The point is that Aunt Helen kept up all weekend (well, she did take a nap during the Caesar’s Head thing). While she has lost much of her mobility and takes advantage of lots of home medical equipment to help with activities of daily living, she was right in there with the rest of us. Everyone, including my aunt, had a ball.

So what I really want to say is, simply, thank you to this industry. To all of the manufacturers who come up with the equipment that makes it possible for people to live as they wish. To all of the HME providers who counsel, suggest and provide those tools that keep our country’s elderly active — and at home in the heart of their families.

It’s a task that is often under-appreciated, but this is truly HME in action.