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.
