Tuesday I left for Cleveland with Martin, the US correspondent for the Polish station TVN. After checking into the hotel, we met the Polish doctor who is the focus of the story at a Hungarian restaurant. I had goulash and hot wine, at his recommendation. Both were very tasty; the hot wine was spiced like Chai.

Wednesday we arrived early at the hospital and got suited up from head to toe in surgical scrubs. Oddly enough they didn't do anything to disinfect the camera. I was quite nervous about filming the Gastric Bypass surgery, because I am prone to throwing up or passing out.

When I entered the ER, the patient had four tubes sticking out of her stomach. There was a table beside her holding long metal instruments with handles on one side and various tools on the other. The assistant surgeon inserted a small camera through the lower left hole in her stomach. Her guts immediately flashed up on the three flat screen monitors surrounding the operating table. The doctor then issued a spoken command to the computer to lower the lights. Now the room was only lit by the monitors and two focused surgical lamps.

The doctor proceeded to slide small pinchers into her stomach, move her liver out of the way and sew her stomach to 1/5th of its normal size. I felt queasy at first, but it soon passed. The surgery lasted about two hours. I spent most of the time circling the patient and shooting the surgery. Surprisingly enough, it did not make me sick to watch the doctor's video feed. It was actually quite fascinating to see them cut the small intestine and reattach it to her truncated stomach.

Afterward, we conducted interviews with the doctors and two patients who had received the surgery. We were finished by about 3:00, so we headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before our flight. The museum is housed in a large building, but the exhibit is relatively small. My favorite items were the Ramones collection, Michael Jackson's red jacket from Thriller and Madonna's pointy bra. Martin liked the Doors section, but was disappointed by the lack of AC/DC paraphernalia.