John McCain's health

I think it's very important that the President of the United States be free of any serious illness that could be terminal; after all, the next one in line would be his VP and the voters did not nominate the VP; so we could end up with a President we would have never nominated or supported...we voted for McCain and hoped his VP would do that particular job satisfactorily...there may be a little scam to this also...we end up with the conservative President we would have never elected.

Dear Doctor, please give us some indication what happens to people's thinking (impact on a normal brain) during and after six years of incarceration as a prisoner of war...as in the case like Mr.
McCain. Have there been any studies showing a trend in loss of
normal function, personality problems, decreased comprehension,
early onset of alchimers , flashbacks , instability, confusion ,temper or other mental malady? How many US vets are in VA hospital presently continuing treatment for disabilities due to a long prior prison confinement as a (POW) like McCain's war experience ?
Will they ever be mentally normal again ?

What is the status of the melanoma on the let side of Mr. McCain's face?. From observation, the condition seems to worsen, and yet little is said of his condition.

What is the medical status of Mr Obama and Ms Clinton??

Thank you.

I am concerned about the changing features in Senator McCain’s face over the past few years. The left side of his face appears to have a mass compared to the right. He post-surgical photos, months out , do not have the mass-like appearance I would expect if this was “post surgical effects.”

Can you do a time-related photo comparison of Senator McCain to address this question?

I would also appreciate some clarification regarding “prognosis” with melanoma. If Stage 2 disease has a 60% life expectancy of 10 years- what is the prognosis of other disease stages. I also think it’s important to review that staging is dynamic and changes according to disease progression. So, what are the plans for continued surveillance and monitoring?

Thank you,

Tanya
Portland, Oregon

I deeply respect Senator McCain's military service and the price he has paid in having been a POW during the Vietnam war. But considering that incarceration, it would seem unlikely that he emerged unscathed by PTSD, a fact We the People should care about in today's highly volatile world. There are many stories about him losing his temper and with all due respect to his knowledge of the military as knowledge, being someone who knows about PTSD I'd also like to point out that fixation on the "thing which hurt you" is a hallmark of PTSD. Since the nature of the syndrome is to 'run away' (psychologically) while overreacting in the present, if Senator McCain has PTSD that would seem to make him unsuited to be President, although still – like all those who suffer from this scourge – a human being worthy of love, support and for his service, our national gratitude. I'm just saying we as a nation need to know the truth – the whole truth here.

I had a similar surgery to Senator McCain's in 2004, for a melanoma that was rated a Stage IV at a large melanoma center,due to size and depth, having had cells dragged into the reconstructive scar line of he primary removal by careless surgery locally. Also had 3 lymph nodes removed which showed no sign of spread.
Senator McCain's brow on that side appears to be paralyzed, as is mine, by damage to the nerve in that area., though I have seen no mention of this. I read reference elsewhere to a small second tumor that was near the larger one at his surgery site, and there did not appear to be a theory for where that came from.
Melanoma is such a mystery still that I think it would be only fair to the voters to have the complete medical records made public. It has long been suspicious to me that full disclosure was not made at the beginning of the campaign.
It also appears that he had reconstructive plastic surgery soon after the original surgery, as a wide excision in that area leaves a sizeable and deep plug removed, much larger that what the Senator seems to display.

I would like someone to explore his health more thoroughly. Its great that his mother is apparently healthy at 96 but women live longer than men and both his father and his grandfather dropped dead of a heart attack (at 70 and 63 respectively) and that is never mentioned.

You people need to quit living in the world of what ifs.......if I were a cancer survivor I would hate it if someone told me I could not be in public service because well....I might die from the cancer. What about Joe Biden? Maybe he could die of a brain anurism – after all he has already had two of those – maybe he isn't qualified medically to be a Senator let alone a VP. You cannot live life based on what ifs.

As you watch Senator McCain walk it appears to me that he has many signs of Parkinson's Disease. He has a rigid shuffling gate and "masked Faces". This can be a very difficult disease to diagnose in its early stages, but given that Parkinson's can be associated with dementia, I am concerned about Mr McCains health regardless of what his doctors are telling the public.

How did we get so far into this election and not ask about the large tumor on Senator McCain's face?

Why didn't he have reconstructive rotator cuff surgery for his arms?

Why is it most of the public believes he can't raise his arms because of torture in North Vietnam when his fractured ams and legs were flail injuries caused by his failure to keep arms and legs tucked in during ejection from his jet?

What do we know about McCain's lifelong alcohol consumption and alcohol's effect on his brain?

Where are his military medical and disciplinary records?

Why is no one discussing the scandal of President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease affecting his presidency and the failure of our White House medical system to remove him from office?

The only soldiers who do not get PTSD from war are those with sociopathic personalities; where is the McCain MMPI personality inventory done on intake and his treatment records on his return?

The odds of Sarah Palin not being acting president while McCain is hospitalized again are rather low. Look to Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Venezuala, and Al Queda to be waiting for that day.

Our Congressman Steve Schiff died of melanoma after a brief illness. If the American public is being deceived on the likelihood of Senator McCain's melanoma staying in remission aren't we taking more than a 40% risk? What about metastasis to the brain?

I saw this post this morning from another blogger on another site and it concerned me:

"Changes in the appearance of McCain's left eye are starting to buzz around the blogs. Frame by frame shots of recent appearances compared to older ones show a noticeable droop and puffiness combined with a different blink pattern. McCain also just recently hired a famous expert makeup artist for the first time. While some are asking if he's had a mild stroke others are putting this together with some very obvious behavioral changes from the "old" John McCain: Melanoma is often a precursor to a metastatic brain tumor.
Among the symptoms from a metastatic brain tumor:
– Emotional instability, rapid emotional changes
– Memory loss, impaired judgment, calculating deficiencies
– Personality changes
– Pupils of eyes are a different size
– Vision changes
– double vision, decreased vision
- Weakness of a body area

This really concerned me because, frankly, I have noticed changes in McCain's left eye in relation to his right lately. Even one comedian recently did a piece about McCain's blinking.

Could this erratic behavior that we're seeing from this candidate be attributed to medical problems rather than his being a so-called maverick?

How do we the American public get this issue to be addressed by the press?

Why would a 72 year old man with a history of malignant melonoma and a family history of heart disease choose a politcal novice to be a running mate unless his judgment was impaired? We have seen George Bush turn to his VP for guidance on most of his national defence dilemmas since 911. What would McCain gain from Govenor Palin after the election? Could he believe that he will live healthy and unimpaired throughout a 4 year term? Does he really believe Governor Palin could step in to the presidency in the very possible event of a seriuos illness or his death? If he believes that, is he delusional? Could he have brain mets?

This has been a fascinating race for dealing with "isms": racism, sexism, ageism, but it seems that, while most of us can agree that racism and sexism are unacceptable, ageism generally continues to be considered fair game. Many argue that the voter needs to seriously consider McCain's age and health. But an article I read today set me wondering: Does Obama's race make him more likely to be assassinated? Now, hear me out: the article I read was about a Briton (in GB) who was recently shot (three times) for wearing an Obama t-shirt. Let's face it–the kind of person who shoots other people is off-kilter–the same kind of person who harbors deep-seated racism. So, though we may wish to avoid bringing race into the discussion, it seems logical to think that Obama is at higher-than-average risk of losing his life or health during his term of office due to a violent attack from some unstable citizen. Heaven forbid, of course, and heaven forbid that McCain should suffer a fatal return of his melanoma–but if it did happen, that would leave Biden in the presidency, a man very few years behind McCain in years, and a man whom Democrats themselves did not choose even among their top three candidates for office. Democratically speaking, if Biden were to become president, it would hardly reflect the will of the people, and, in terms of age, we'd be pretty much where we would be with McCain.

Dr. Gupta,
I find it hard to believe that medical records would not be released in this context . It seems that the pubic has the right to health disclosure in this matter. He wants to be the president of the United States of America.... And to be honest many people that I spoke with after the last debate, Republican and Democrat thought he was acting a little strange during the debate. Please do the American people a large favor and investigate, investigate, and investigate.
EB

Why did CNN focus on only past presidents and other world leaders on health matters and leave out President Kennedy's health problems his so called, Dr. Feelgood who prescribed all those pain killers for Kennedy, which the American public knew nothing about until after the fact. They focused on President Nixon's medical records at length. John McCain's lengthly medical report and hardly a mention of Barack Obama's one page medical report.