April 2021 Cost of Being a Nomad

April didn’t go as planned. We came to Florida (our state of residency) in March to have physicals (which we hadn’t had in over three years). I figured it would take a couple of weeks to meet with our primary care physician, have referrals for the kind of tests you get when you are our age, get our blood work done, have our follow up and then be on our way. It didn’t go like that. The referrals took almost two weeks to get, our follow up appointment with our PCP was repeatedly canceled, there were follow up appointments for each of my referrals that either needed another referral from my doctor (whose office told me I had to see in person to get the referral – and whose appointments were repeatedly canceled) or needed to be approved by my insurance. On top of all this one of the follow-up tests my cardiologist wanted was the same test my mother had taken when she was being diagnosed with Cardiovascular Disease. She had a very bad reaction to the test and ended up with renal failure. Her health was destroyed and she died six months later.

The delays were bad. Florida gets hot in the spring. Although we had a good place to stay in the van at a friend’s house we really needed to get to cooler climates. But the worst of it was the worry about the test my cardiologist wanted me to take. I didn’t want to take it. I wanted to talk to my PCP about it but as I mentioned before my appointments kept getting canceled. I reached out to friends who had had the test done. I cried a lot, a whole lot. I finally met with my PCP and realized that I was going to have to call the cardiologist’s office and talk to them about it. I told them I wanted to take a different kind of test. And then that afternoon Greg and I left for the Everglades.

We had been dealing with doctor’s appointments for three and half weeks by then. I had decided to spend my spare time catching up and doing some long overdue maintenance on the blog. But the stress of the health saga had gotten too much and we decided we needed a distraction – so off we went to spend a few sweaty nights and adventurous days in the swamps of Florida. We returned a few days later for more appointments (Greg’s follow-up for his physical and a follow-up mammogram for me) and then we fled Florida altogether. There was a 6-day gap in appointments and a friend in South Carolina had offered for us to come and stay with them for a while if I needed to recuperate from any of my tests or any procedures the tests may result in. I told her we needed to “pre-cuperate.” Then I decided that 6 days (with two full days of travel) wasn’t enough and delayed my appointments for another week.

South Carolina was good. We got to see some of our very best friends as well as Greg’s son and daughter-in-law. I didn’t think about my health problems too much – although we did spend time taking our blood pressure and monitoring our heart rate (fun stuff when you get old). I practiced for my upcoming stress test with a vigorous walk around the neighborhood every day. And I got to do some much-needed work on the blog (I have a new design and am still working out some of the kinks so please excuse me if things don’t look quite right yet).

We are now back in Florida and ready to wrap this whole health saga up. I’m ready for the results and the recommendations. But whatever they are, we are planning to leave Florida by mid-month. It’s too hot and as travelers, it is less than ideal living in a van unless we are actually traveling. If there needs to be more tests or any sort of treatment beyond medicine or diet change we can come back in the fall.

BTW – I debated writing about this. I just don’t want to be one of those old people that talk about their health problems all the time but since this blog is a document of our life – and health could be a big deciding factor in our journey – I’ve included it. But honestly, right now I feel fine. Greg feels fine. We hope to keep it that way.

And our total expenses for April were…

Here is the breakdown of categories…

I’m pretty happy with our total this month considering how much we spent on gas driving from one doctor appointment to the next in Florida and then on our big drive to South Carolina. We had a camping expense for our very much needed distraction returning to the Everglades. Our food total was down a bit – perhaps because of the dietary changes we are making. I am trying to drastically reduce my cheese intake and up our vegetable intake. Greg has gone cold turkey on the salty snacks that used to fill up his evenings. To keep his snack hands busy he has decided to take up knitting (a portion of the gear expense this month). We picked up burritos a few times coming home from doctors’ appointments and we ate out once with friends in South Carolina. And, of course, there were some doctor’s expenses.

A few stats you might be interested in

Camping totals (all camping is free unless otherwise indicated):

15 – nights in a Friend’s driveway
1 – night on a Friend’s boat
4 – nights at National Park Campgrounds (paid)
10 – nights inside a house

Number of miles driven: 2179 (this makes our April gas cost about 18¢ per mile).

To see all of our expense reports, click here.

If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya at Roaming About.

*All pics are click to enlarge.