When my husband Mike and I decided to live the full-time RV life in 2019, Don’t Wait became our motto. We’d had too many friends who were waiting until “the right time” to do whatever it was that they wanted to do, and the right time never came.

We were empty nesters, Mike was already working remotely, and I was an author—we could do these jobs from anywhere! There was nothing keeping us in Virginia. We kept our home the first year and spent that time getting everything set up for us to sell in 2020.

The biggest piece of the puzzle was where to set up our “medical home base”. We chose the Columbus, Ohio, area because we knew that we would eventually end up there. Why Columbus? Because that is where the grandsons are!

We got our medical, dental, determatology, and vision set up and made sure everyone was on our insurance plan. This is especially important if you have an HMO and need to make sure they are in network.

We then began to build our yearly schedule around longer stays in Ohio in the spring for the yearly appointments and shorter stays in the fall for 6-month visits. I also scheduled everything during the first week of the stay in case of rescheduling or for any needed follow-up appointments.

This went smoothly for the first four years. Then we were hit with news that no one wants to hear, but especially someone living the RV life. I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am happy to say that because I got my mammogram 5 months early that year due to our travel schedule, it was caught early. I was also blessed with an amazing breast surgeon who understood our lifestyle and wanted to help me make my goal of going to the Tournament of Roses Parade at the end of 2023.

I opted for the surgery and treatment that would get us back on the road the quickest, and by the grace of God I did not need chemo or radiation. I was able to get back to living my best life on my terms by late October. We made it to the Tournament of Roses Parade!

5 Things We Learned

1. Finding a place to stay: We were fortunate that there was a campground that could accommodate us with an open-ended reservation without having to move sites.
2. Have your medical records with you: Even if you use MyChart, not every medical facility has access to them while you’re on the road. This is especially important for test results and imaging. Also—and this came from my breast surgeon—have those images on a CD, not a thumb drive. Many medical facilities do not allow outside thumb drives for security reasons. If you get images done while you’re on the road, get a CD to take back to your home doctor so they have them for your records.
3. Prescriptions: Figure out the best way to get your refills. Mail order is not always the best option, especially if you’re moving around the country. I have several that I take daily. I did my research and found that if you use something like GoodRX, you can get an entire year’s worth of medication at once if your doctor writes the script that way. NOTE: This only works if you use self-pay options, not if you go through your insurance. However, sometimes this is cheaper than using the co-pay, so it might be worth checking out. We are now on a health share plan and this was the best, easiest, and cheapest option.
4. Have a central location to keep emergency information: We have a whiteboard on our refrigerator where we write down the campground address, phone number, and our site number. This way if we need to call 911, we aren’t searching for the campground map, which is not always provided.
5. Locate the closest emergency facility: Make sure you know where the emergency room or urgent care facilities are.

After going through all we went through, our motto changed to “Don’t Wait to enhance, change or save your life.” I wrote about our journey in my book, Don’t Wait - Our Full-time RV Journey Through Breast Cancer. I now speak at rv rallies sharing our story and all we’ve learned with the hope of encouraging others to keep up with medical appointments and screenings.

For more information, go to our travel blog www.theramblingquilter.com.