Finally back from Italy!

Welcome from New York City! I am finally back from Italy and in the United States. However, I am delayed in getting back to Columbus, Ohio making it necessary to inconvienience the 3 patients who were scheduled for surgery today. Yesterday our flight from Pisa, Italy was delayed several hours because of the volcanic plume from the volcano in Iceland. Then to avoid the plume we were routed up over Norway and down over Canada to get to New York. Therefore the time of the flight was 14 hours instead of the expected 9 hours and 50 minutes. On top of that as we were about to land we were told the flaps on our plane were not working and they called out the fire trucks and ambulances "just in case". We landed safely with our family but missed all connecting flights and spent the night in hotel rooms. We should be leaving for the JFK Airport in a couple of hours. Traveling with the family including three kids 5 years, 3 years and 10 months is a challenge especially when all three kids lost their lunch on the landing. We all smelled great getting off the plane! Actually the kids were amazing during the entire vacation and all 12 of us had a great time in Italy.


We ahd a great time exploring Florence, visiting the beautiful mideavil city of Seina and even taking a day trip to the coast at the Cinque Terre. The food was great and always interesting. We stayed at a vineyard outside of Florence and also visited another family vineyard in the Chianti region were we had a wonderful meal with their family.

Returning to the USA today I find one very striking difference. The rate of obesity is much higher in our country. In fact, despite the wonderful food in Italy I saw only one person out of the thousands of people I saw there that would have met criteria for bariatric surgery and at breakfast this morning at our Hampton Inn I noticed at least 6 of the 30 or so people at breakfast would meet criteria for bariatric surgery. I am afraid all of the gains we have made in heart and cancer care will be lost as the obesity epidemic continues to increase the suffering Americans are experiencing from obesity related medical problems.
I return committed to care for as many people suffering from the effects of obesityt as want to be helped by means of bariatric surgery.

While reading the USA Today this morning I read a quote that is true not only for business but for my patients as well. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook said "When the would is moving and changing so fast, the worst risk is to do nothing". We have enjoyed our vacation but it is time for me to get busy helping those that want to be helped from this devastating problem.