Did You Ever Wonder?

Recently while in San Diego for the annual American Society for Bariatric Surgery conference I had the opportunity to be alone for a couple of days.  Other than talking to my husband and mom on the phone I had the rare privilege of making myself disappear. Even though I was around hundreds of people I was able to observe what was going on around me as opposed to me feeling like I had to be a part of a discussion or feel like I had to pay attention and learn something. My brain was free.  I could walk and think uninhibited by work, projects, or my upcoming months of a challenging agenda. Read More

I Wanna Dig Up Grandma

If I could ever write another book it would be all about my patients who attend support group.  They are by far one of the most interesting groups I have had the privilege to work with in a long time.  They are inquisitive, very knowledgeable about the surgery they had, friendly and welcoming to new patients and most of all they are fun to be with.  They love to party and we do that a lot. Read More

Its Not Just About Billy

A friend of my oldest son has had a problem with alcohol too many years of his life.  Finally the first part of August, Billy ended up in the emergency room with what the doctors called 'alcoholic poisoning'.  Billy was restrained in his bed, fed intravenous solutions of vitamins and minerals and given a variety of drugs to help prevent him from having another seizure.  He was pretty much in a coma as the detoxification process began.  I went to see Billy daily as I was the closest person he could call 'mom'.  My heart ached for him but all along I knew this was going to happen and in my heart was glad that it did.  He was lucky he didn't die and perhaps his 'luck' would stay with him to help him realize he had to stop drinking to be able to live a long life.  He would need long term help to move past his addiction to alcohol.  Would he be able to do it?  Time would tell. Read More