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• Position: St. Patrick's Day, breast reconstruction and post-childbirth weight

ST. PATRICK'S DAY BY THE NUMBERS

With St. Patrick's Day arriving this month and at least $5,300,000,000 expected to be spent on the festivities, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on the Best Cities for St. Patrick's Day Celebrations, along with statistics about the holiday.

To determine the best cities for celebrating Irish-American heritage, the number crunchers compared 200 of the largest U.S. cities across 16 key metrics, ranging from "Irish pubs and restaurants per capita" to "lowest price for a three-star hotel on March 17" to "weather forecast."

The top 20 cities, starting at No. 1, are Buffalo, N.Y.; Madison, Wis.; Boston, Mass.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Worcester, Mass.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Akron, Ohio; Tampa, Fla.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; Naperville, III.; Rochester, N.Y; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, III.; Springfield, Mass.; Springfield, Mo.; St. Paul, Minn.; Overland Park, Kan.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Grand Rapids, Mich.

Here are some St. Patrick's Day stats:

* The market value of a leprechaun's pot of gold, which contains 1,000 gold coins weighing one ounce each, is $1,220,000.

* Some 13,000,000 pints of Guinness will be consumed on March 17.

* Seventy-two minutes is the interval at which alcohol-related car crashes claim a life.

* The cost of an Uber ride from Boston to Dublin, Ohio, is $3,762 (versus up to $24,000 for the total cost of a DUI).

BREAST RECONSTRUCTION SURGERIES JUMP 65%

The portion of women who elect to have breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy has increased 65% since 2009, with the sharpest rise occurring among women aged 65 and older, according to an analysis by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, Rockville, Md.

Much of the increase is attributable to a 150% increase in reconstruction surgeries performed in hospital-based ambulatory surgery centers. Breast reconstruction in those outpatient settings has increased from seven per 100,000 women to 18 per 100,000. The rate remains unchanged (seven per 100,000) for inpatient reconstructions during the same period.

AHRQ's analysis provides new insights into the complex and emotional decisions made by women following mastectomies. Maintains Director Gopal Khanna: 'This type of information is essential for policymakers and health systems seeking to keep pace with important trends in clinical care."

Although rates for reconstruction surgery rose for females in all insurance categories, the steepest increase (130%) occurred among Medicare patients. The gap between insured and uninsured women has narrowed, as the rate of reconstructive surgery increased faster for the uninsured (104%) than for the privately insured (51%).

'This information suggests that many uninsured women were willing to pay for reconstruction surgery out-of-pocket," notes Anne Elixhauser, senior scientist at AHRQ.

HOW WOMEN VIEW THEIR POST-CHILDBIRTH SELVES

Actress Jennifer Garner, a mother of three, once jokingly referred to the extra weight that childbirth left around her tummy as her "baby bump" and added almost proudly, "It's not going anywhere." Another actress, Drew Barrymore, after giving birth twice, described how "everything's saggy and weird," but also dismissed the Hollywood pressure to lose post-childbirth weight as "silly and ridiculous."

"Different women certainly react in different ways to the changes their bodies go through because of childbirth," says Michael Burgdorf, founder of Music City Plastic Surgery, Nashville, Tenn., and author of The Mommy Makeover. Restoring Your Body After Childbirth. "Some are fine with it because happiness shouldn't be about how your body looks. It should come from within, but I do encounter women who have lost their self-confidence, worry that they are less desirable to their partners, and describe feeling old before their time."

For women who yearn to return to their pre-pregnancy shape--or at least something approximating it--Burgdorf offers this advice:

Diet and exercise remain the first options. "You don't have to train for a marathon in between diaper changes, but you can work some regular exercise into your life. Do not expect this to return you completely to the body you had before pregnancy, but you will be fitter and healthier."

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