I met my neighbor at the mailbox yesterday, and he said "Well here's my pump."
I was surprised. My neighbor is strong and the vision of health.
He said it is a Chemo Pump. He said he went in to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for a colonoscopy and they found 17 polyps, one third of them were cancerous. They removed about 8 inches of his lower intestine and he was now receiving chemotherapy which he could do at home with an ambulatory infusion pump.
I gave my neighbor my condolences, but he said No! I feel fortunate. They had caught it early and now he had excellent chances of full recovery.
He said that he had felt great and still did. He had gone in four years ago for a Sigmoidoscopy which just examines the last third of the large intestine, which is where the new polyps were found, but he was free of polyps then. He had asked his doctor how long he might have walked around with the cancer growing before he felt bad or had symptoms, and the doctor said maybe two years! By that time it might have spread and his chances would have been much bleaker.
Colon Cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in both sexes in the United States. It is most common in people over 50 years old so everyone over fifty should have a screening. See:
http://www.medicinenet.com/colon_cancer/...I felt guilty when My neighbor told me this, because while I did have a Sigmoidoscopy about 5 years ago, while I was still working and had good insurance, since my retirement I haven't been getting my regular check ups.
Continuing my old insurance under Cobra would have eaten up three fourths of my pension, so I purchased a less expensive $5000 deductible plan with a health savings account. The theory propounded by many conservatives is that if the medical services come from your own pocket, unnecessary procedures would be minimized and medical costs would go down.
The reality is that I am a frugal cheap bastard and I only spend money when I need to. Medically that meant that I only went in to see the doctor when something was seriously wrong with me, and I stopped getting my annual checkups and other preventative measures. This is one of those cases where penny pinching might result in much more expensive medical treatments for the insurance company, and could cost me my health or my life.
Taking responsibility for my own health is more than just eating healthy and getting lots of exercise. It also means going in for periodic checkups, and that just wasn't happening with my current insurance.
Now thanks to the new Health Care law, Insurance Companies are going to be required to cover, free and without co-pays, preventative care which includes colonoscopies. This may result in new insurance policy rate increases of 1.5%, but in the long run these preventative measures will reduce medical costs, and save the consumers and the Insurance Industry a lot of money, because it is considerably cheaper to treat these illnesses when caught early, then it is when symptoms indicate the illness is much worse or too late to cure.
The new preventative screening requirements will go into effect on September 23rd. For a list of procedures that will be covered under the new rules see:
www.healthcare.gov/law/about/provisions/...For the news article See:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66...