Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) is an autoimmune disease that affects the connective tissue in the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys. With Lupus, the immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues, causing to the body’s defense system to start attacking the body. This can lead to an array of symptoms, including:
If you read the above list, you can imagine the challenges a Lupus-suffering geocacher may face.
The cause of Lupus is unknown, but it is a widespread and life-long disease what affects approximately 1,500,000 people in the United States. Chances are you know somebody with Lupus, and may not even know it.
My wife Julie and I learned about geocaching in early 2003 from a local newspaper article. It sounded like a good way to get out of the house, spend some time with each other and our dogs, get some exercise, and have some fun.
The challenge was to see if Julie was going to be up to it.
Julie was diagnosed with Lupus when she was 20. At the time, she was very ill (to the point of debilitation). She has lived with lupus for years, and has the disease maintained with medications. Daily, she lives with arthritis-like stiffness, chronic fatigue, and photosensitivity (prolonged sun exposure, caused “flares” or periods of inflammation) with her lupus. To a Lupus person, sunscreen, long sleeves, and a wide-brimmed hat are a must.
As we began looking for caches to find in the Northern California area, we had to take into account Julie’s illness when planning to search for a cache. Our local area includes the United States’ third-largest park. Many of the caches located there involve a lengthy or strenuous hike. Even the “easier” hides can be a challenge with the sweltering summer temperatures daily peak at well over a hundred degrees.
Proper difficulty and terrain rating by the geocache owner is important, and can make all the difference to a physically challenged cacher. Not every cacher has the ability to seek a geocache with a very high terrain or difficulty level. Depending on how active the disease at any time, a lupus patient may not be able to bushwhack, rock scramble, or climb a tree. A geocache rated as a “one star” for terrain should be wheelchair accessible all the way to the cache location. It defeats the purpose to rate it low if the last five yards involves climbing down a ditch or up a tree. Difficulty ratings should include a clue about the container itself. A super-duper mini micro that someone hid may be impossible for someone with arthritis to open, sign the log, and re-close.
Not all geocaching experiences need to have long, arduous hikes to view sweeping vistas or necessitate the need to entail complex search and rescue-like techniques. Even the easiest geocaches have a place in the Geocaching universe. One often hears people complain about urban caches being “too easy” or “uninspired”. To a geocacher with disabilities or restrictions, they are a godsend.
Both Julie and I are lucky to have found a hobby/sport/lifestyle that gets us out of the confines of the house and outside exploring. Every cache find (even the ones we do not find) is a victory over the disease that could easily make someone give up hope of having an active lifestyle. We have been to caches with soaring views, and caches in places and towns that we would never have visited otherwise. Even easy caches give a feeling of deep satisfaction and a reason to thumb our noses at Julie’s Lupus.
Here are some useful links we have found: http://www.lupus.org/ http://www.handicaching.com/