President Obama's Colonoscopy Successful, Say Docs

Among the least fun preventive medical procedures for men are the prostate exam and colonoscopy. Fortunately, colon cancer is a slow growing type so that colonoscopy examinations for most people with average risk can be spaced about seven years apart. Time intervals for colonoscopy can vary, according to various data and references. Comparing a manual prostate exam to a colonoscopy is like comparing the time length of a baseball game to a downhill ski run.

A diagnosis of colon cancer being the "worst thing," it's hard to single out the second-most "worst thing" about a colonoscopy but many people say it is the preparation required. Fasting and the intake of noxious fluids are begun in advance. Failing to do so can make the examination less reliable and frustrate the doctor performing the test.

The traditional optical colonoscopy requires anesthesia and is performed in a hospital or clinic. But traditional colonoscopy is not the only approved method of checking your colon for pre-cancerous polyps. Numerous physician and medical insurance organizations have endorsed the virtual or CT scan colonoscopy and this is the one used by President Obama in his periodic health check conducted last week.

Virtual colonoscopy takes only fifteen minutes, compared to the two-day affair of the traditional optical procedure.
CT colonoscopy is a recommended procedure of the American Cancer Society and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Technology Evaluation Center, among others. Use of the procedure could save thousands of lives, particularly for those who flatly decline to subject themselves to the invasive traditional procedure.

Optical colonoscopy is not especially dangerous but it does contain the risk that the bowel could be perforated during the procedure, resulting in potentially fatal toxemia. Too, there are risks associated with anesthesia, particularly for those who have other medical problems. Yet, two government oversight agencies have decided that virtual colonoscopy will not be covered by Medicare. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (or CMS) decided against CT or virtual colonoscopy in a decision in May 2009.

Personally, I'm comfortable with the president having advantages I don't have, but that's hardly the point. Certainly a man who prides himself on social sophistication can see the metaphorical role played by the presidency. Isn't the First Lady's victory garden an allegory for healthy eating and old-fashioned farm-style independence? Wasn't there a metaphorical point to the so-called "beer summit?" What was the "health care summit" if not a theatrical display aimed at the American public?

My point is that this presidency nearly frequently sets the wrong example. Right now, the biggest obstacle to ObamaCare is not John Boehner and the Republicans; it's the spreading public perception that the Obama administration has different rules for different folks. A CT scan of one's intestines is not such an obscurantist procedure that it must be reserved only for presidents. CT scans are a common and ordinary procedure, often used by dentists and implantologists in tooth replacement-also not covered by medical insurance. As costs of an expanded, government-subsidized medical health care system climb, the quality of treatment and the availability of doctors to perform it will decline.

The worry for many Americans is that ObamaCare is being forced upon them for political reasons-merely to show that the administration accomplished something. What that something is presents many problems and coverage and the availability of treatment are just two of them.

Will Americans have health insurance that must bypass government bureaucrats? Will government bureaucrats stall developments in medical technology because they want to promise better health care on the cheap?

There are other indications in President Obama's public appearances which betray a lack of candor. During one public appearance a woman asked why the Democrats' health care bill didn't include dental insurance. The President assured the woman that he agreed with her, on the grounds that bacterial infections stemming from dental problems can impact heart functioning. But isn't that what House and Senate Democrats (and Republicans, too) do? Promise them whatever they want and then deliver what you want?

President Obama's doctors also advised in their report that the president should cut back on his cigarette smoking, a heart and health destroying activity that President Obama has always taken great pains to hide. Other comments to the president advised "moderate" imbibing of alcohol.

There is a myth extant that people opposed to the President's policies are opposed to the president personally. Nothing could be farther from the truth; Democrats know it, but can't resist taking shots at bombastic Rush Limbaugh who plays them like an old familiar tune.

The president's opponents, including Rush Limbaugh, are more concerned with the president's well-being than his so-called "friends," who would hold him in higher regard as a martyr than a living person. The Reverend Louis Farrakhan said as much in recent comments when he baited his audience with the notion that "right-wing" Republicans were "setting him (Obama) up." Farrakhan apparently forgets it was Nation of Islam members who assassinated FOI hero Malcom X, not conservative Republicans.

I hope President Obama will take his doctor's advice and quit smoking. Aside from improvement of his own health, quitting smoking would set a better example for teens. But aside from the example he's setting for America's teens, President Obama needs to seriously consider the overall health of the country as he pushes a health care plan that will make few people healthier and is certain to make everyone poorer.