Opinion | Tony Jones: The joy of the doctor’s green Gatorade

I had my periodic colonoscopy recently. Ah, what a joy that is.

Let me just say you’ll never look at green Gatorade the same way again after running through the prep for this procedure. This was my third one in eight years, thanks to the discovery of pre-cancerous colon polyps during my first examination. And lo and behold, the little buggers are back again after a clean scan the second time. No biggie, caught this early they are mostly a benign nuisance. But I can’t help but wonder what the situation would be if I hadn’t had this procedure done and found and removed that first batch of polyps eight years ago.

It goes to show the value in preventative medicine, which often includes medical imaging of patients who are nonsymptomatic. Sometimes that imaging comes about in unexpected ways. For instance, the case of the medical student who submitted herself to an ultrasound while playing the part of a patient for a class only to discover she had thyroid cancer. Or like when my brother, a heart imaging specialist, gave our dad a cardiac scan several years back. He did it on a lark, to show our father what it was he did for a living, and it turns out that, unbeknownst to anyone, there was a heart issue lurking in my dad’s chest. Thanks to that scan, he underwent successful double bypass surgery at the age of 65 that fixed a problem that he didn’t know he had. Dad turned 92 years old last month. I’m not sure that he would have made it this far were it not for that scan my brother gave him.

When my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, she was also not symptomatic. But she had been smoking for some 45 years at that time and the physician’s assistant she was working with suggested that she get a preventative lung scan, just in case. That physician’s assistant may have saved her life because sure as hell, that scan turned something up. A lobectomy and nine monitoring CT scans later, she remains cancer free. Again, one can’t help but wonder of the potential tragedy had she not gotten that “preventative” scan six years ago.

Which brings me to the point of this column, which is to highlight the American Cancer Society’s newly issued recommendations regarding preventative scanning for lung cancer. These updated recommendations suggest that anyone who has smoked at least “20 pack years”, at any time in their life, no matter how many years ago they quit (if they’ve quit) should get annual preventative CT lung scans. This loosening of who should be able to get a preventative scan is a welcome step and hopefully insurance companies will fall in line quickly and begin covering such expenses as part of a preventative regimen of healthcare, just like with colonoscopies and mammograms. This regimen can help save and lengthen lives while also saving patients and the healthcare system money as late-stage cancer diagnoses add greatly to the staggering costs associated with the US healthcare system.

The issuance of these guidelines doesn’t mean that insurance companies will immediately start OK-ing requests for these procedures. There’ll be some lag before those guidelines make it into insurance policy benefits listings, but it can’t be soon enough. Another anecdote illustrates that. After my wife had successfully completed her surgery and recovery and returned to work, she was talking with a coworker, a former “smoker buddy” she previously would chat with while having a cigarette outside the backdoor at work. That coworker’s smoking history was similar to my wife’s, and based on the conversations they’d had about my wife’s experiences, the coworker asked her medical provider for a preventative CT lung scan. They worked for the same company and had the same insurance, yet the coworker was turned down for the scan. There may have been more to that denial than her not being symptomatic, but regardless, it shows the “luck of the draw” aspect of who can currently access these potentially lifesaving treatments.

So do yourself a favor if you’re a current or former smoker. Make a New Year’s resolution to keep an eye on this evolving issue, and when these types of scans become a part of your insurance’s preventative healthcare regimen, get one done. I know from experience how frightening making the decision to get a scan and then following through with it can be. But so is treating cancer and the sooner cancer is detected the less severe the treatment is and the greater the chances of your long-term survival. And while you’re at it, make sure that you’re up to date on your mammograms and colonoscopies as well. After all, sacrificing your love for green Gatorade is a small price to pay for your health.

Tony Jones’ column “Everything in Moderation” publishes biweekly on Thursdays in the Summit Daily News. Jones is a veteran of the IT industry and has worked in the public and private sectors. He lives part-time in Summit County and Denver. Contact him at eimsummit@gmail.com.