I have Epilepsy, or at least that is what the doctors called it when they could not figure out why I started having seizures about 25 years ago. Personally I think it is because of tobacco but that is a story for another time. Everything is well controlled with medication and I can’t tell you the last time I had a seizure. About 10 years ago I asked my doctor about quitting the medication I’ve been taking. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Would it be possible to stop taking my medicine?
Doctor: Are you having seizures?
Me: No
Doctor: Are you suffering from any adverse side effects from the medication?
Me: No
Doctor: Are you having trouble affording the medication?
Me: No
Doctor: Then why do you want to stop taking the medication?
Me: Uhhh.....
And that was the last time I asked that question.
Last Summer I went on a 12 day backpacking expedition in the Rocky Mountains. I had planned for a long time for that to be my graceful exit from KTC. It was an easy addicts excuse to not post roll anymore everyday. I’ll be up in the mountains with no way to charge my battery and I don’t even know if I’ll have a cell signal. I justified it with myself by saying it’s not fair to my April 2018 Brothers and Sister to say hey, give me some slack on posting roll while I’m gone, it would be best if I just left the group. I also thought it would be the right thing to do to let everyone know why I was leaving. There are so many past brothers that have just gone poof into the air and I wonder what happened.
The time came to announce my intentions and I wrote it out just like I had planned. I even left the hope there that I still may be able to post but don’t count on it. Almost immediately I started getting calls and texts but not about what I expected. I figured my group would congratulate me on what I had accomplished so far and wish me luck on my trip. Not the case, they all were about ways to keep up my posts, what they could do to help me and about not leaving the group, some were nice about it and others not so nice about it.
What am I going to do now? I thought about it for a while and asked myself this:
Am I using tobacco/nicotine products while posting roll? No
Am I suffering from any adverse side effects from posting roll everyday? No
Am I having trouble financially posting roll everyday? No
Then why do I want to stop posting roll? Uhhh.....
Needless to say, drove to REI in Kansas City the next day and picked up a nice little solar charger that fit on my backpack to keep my phone somewhat charged. I think I was able to post roll every day but 1 when I was actually out of cell signal for a day (several of my brothers received pickup requests as soon as my phone hit a signal).
I am so glad I did not leave. I’m pretty sure I would have been back on tobacco by now, I’ve had some urges lately to take a dip but something as small and easy as my daily post has kept the crap out of my mouth. It’s easy, if you are thinking you don’t need this anymore just think about those questions that doctor asked me 10 years ago.