by Cheryl Rofer
I think that all of us know someone who has gone through the rigors of chemotherapy for cancer. It's not as bad as it once was; doctors are finding that smaller doses of those difficult drugs given more continuously seem to be more effective and less debilitating than big doses a few times. But the difficulty remains that killing cancer cells isn't too much different from killing healthy cells, and the patient suffers.
Nausea is only one of the side effects of chemotherapy, and there is more control for it than there once was, although not everyone can tolerate those drugs. Many people report "chemo brain," in which their memory is damaged and their ability to deal with daily life is compromised by mood swings.
Imagine a president undergoing chemotherapy. He would not be totally incapacitated, as recent presidents have been by short bouts of general anaesthesia. But he would not be at his best, by a long shot. Would he pass the responsibility to his vice president?
That's why it's important to know more about the candidates' health histories. The New York Times today recapitulated what we know. John McCain has had several surgeries for melanoma, one of the most metastatic cancers, the kind that are treated by chemotherapy. It's possible that Barack Obama could show up with prostate cancer or another health problem, but less likely for someone his age.
There is a general problem here that probably won't be solved until we actually face the situation. But we need to know more about the candidates' health records.