Bush Probed from Below

For just over two hours this past weekend, Dick Cheney was your President. The reason? Dubya was having 5 hyperplastic polyps removed from his colon.

Typically, conscious sedation (e.g. Versed or Fentanyl) is administered for a screening colonoscopy since most people find it unpleasant to have a camera-headed tube inserted into their anus and advanced through their colon.

Nearly as uncomfortable is the “colon prep” that must be taken the night before to make sure the inside of the gut is clean for viewing. Most often, patients in Bush’s situation are given a jug of liquid like GoLytely to drink the night before the procedure and a clear liquid diet. This often induces a significant amount of toilet time the night prior to the study – which is sort of comical to think of in the setting of our President.

Since Bush was temporarily incapacitated by the sedation meds, he transferred power over to VP Cheney for 125 minutes. Thankfully, it was an uneventful couple of hours.

Turns out that Bush had 5 polyps removed from his colon and all of them were benign. The 61-year-old President will have his next colon cancer screening in 3 years.

Ironically, Bush’s health news was delivered by Tony Snow, who is undergoing chemotherapy for recurrent and metastatic colon cancer after having a large segment of colon removed in 2005.

2007-07-25