ILLNESS AND THE RV LIFE

For anyone who is nervous about health, the RV life offers many tempting opportunities for angst. The potluck dinners at campgrounds may have potato salad loaded with Salmonella bacteria, for instance. Rattlesnakes can lurk behind every sunny rock. The frequent contacts with RVers from all over the world can expose you to a variety of interesting illnesses.

A while ago a friend gave me the book The Complete Manual of Things that might Kill You, created by Knock Knock Publications. What a must-read for hypochondriacs! If you have a headache, the book reminds you that you may have a brain tumor; a stomachache may be a bleeding ulcer; trembling may result from mercury poisoning; and so on. There is no mild symptom that cannot be caused by some serious fatal disease.

Being a bit inclined toward hypochondria and self-diagnosis, I worry about the diseases and accidents I may have, both while traveling and while at home. Should I slather sunscreen on my entire body to avoid skin cancer, or sunbathe to forestall osteoporosis? Some of the campgrounds where we stay look less than pristine, but it seems like too much trouble to carry bottled water with us. Are my occasional intestinal upsets caused by the Giardia parasite found in contaminated water?

Campgrounds can be dangerous environments, but there is always a chance of developing an inherited illness while you are on the road, also. Only a few years ago, it would have been impossible to foretell the likelihood of falling victim to Huntington’s disease or some other genetic disorder. Today, if you have thousands of dollars to spend on your neurosis, you can find out a great deal about your genome and learn whether you are sitting on a time bomb and simply waiting to become ill.  Your genotype may include genes predisposing you to aneurysms, heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, or many other potentially fatal diseases. You can then worry about the likelihood of actually developing them.

Yes, genetics or environment can make you become ill or even die in your RV or on a hiking trail. On the other hand, life at home can be dangerous as well. You may be hit by a speeding car, or fall getting out of the bathtub. If you do have a genetic illness, it can appear at any time or place. So, much as I sometimes indulge in hypochondria, I will not succumb to it. I prefer not to have any genetic testing unless it can show whether I have a preventable disease. Being in a few high-risk groups, I will continue to have mammograms, colonoscopies, and other procedures that may uncover a disorder I already have, though. Once in a while even a hypochondriac can in fact be ill.