DannyHaszard Posted December 11, 2005 Share Posted December 11, 2005 "Staying Alive Until 1975" My Story of Growing Up a Jehovah Witness With Severe Ulcerative Colitis. I remember where i was when i heard that President John Kennedy was assassinated.With the same vivid recall i also remember exactly where i was in 1967 at age 10 when i heard the Watchtower (Jehovah's Witnesses) announce the end of the world was coming in 1975. Young Jehovah's Witness men were being sent to prison for refusing to serve in the Vietnam war and i would just miss my destiny by a few months.All i had to do was trust and serve Jehovah God and the Watchtower organization with all my heart and i "would stay alive till 75". Little did i know the catastrophic cascade of events that were to befall me when in the fall of 1970 my first symptoms of devastating ulcerative colitis was to appear.Ulcerative colitis like crohn's disease is IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). Little was known about the pathology back then and most of it was wrong.I was told that it was caused by stress and i attributed my dysfunctional difficult life as a young Jehovah's Witness as the source. The origin of this thinking was that stomach ulcers were caused by stress induced stimulation of hydrochloric acid which ate holes in the mucosa wall.Now we know that stomach ulcers are actually caused by a little bacterium bug called H.pylori and stress has little to do with it.Think about this,there are millions of people everywhere with life's of stressed induced hardships and they DON'T get ulcers. The worst thing you an tell a patient who is already stressed out is that their illness is caused my stress and put them on a self imposed guilt trip for it. Now we know that it's almost certainly an auto-immune disorder like rheumatoid arthritis and stress,strength or defects of character have little bearing on the course of the disease.It's an idiopathic disorder which is a big doctor word meaning;'it comes and goes when it wants to and no one knows what causes it'. I do know this for certain,because of the Watchtower organization's promise of a 'new world' in 1975 my disease was woefully mismanaged.I neglected my health care believing in the bogus false promise that 'any day' i would be in the 'new system' and Jehovah God would cure me forever. 1975 came and went and the Watchtower has now denied LIED ever making that end of the world prediction. The disease was to continue to ravage me for another 23 years until my bowel finally gave out and i had to have a total proctocolectomy with an ileostomy appliance (colostomy bag) Ulcerative colitis because it is confined only to the large intestine can be cured with this surgery,remember from high school anatomy class the large bowel is a storage hold and not essential for life so it can be taken out you just have to wear a bag.Unfortunately poor folks with crohn's disease which can involve the entire digestive tract don't usually have this straightforward option. It is now well into the 21st century and i have a life now that is second to none.The devout are growing old and dying in the Jehovah's Witnesses just like everyone else and i now have had to come to terms with my own eventual mortality. If you have IBD don't be intimidated please seek out a crohn's and colitis or ostomy support group and if there is none in your area go online,same goes if your still a Jehovah's Witness.There is much better treatment today and there is a good life after surgery. Hey,ostomates like me can never get colon cancer because we don't have a colon anymore,or for that matter we don't have any of the other 'problems' associated with that part of the anatomy. There is also a good life after the Watchtower.Cheers,Danny Haszard Bangor Maine Watchtower Jehovah's Witness Whistleblower http://www.dannyhaszard.com {footnote my page say's i am a 'born again Christian' this is disinformation for Jehovah's Witnesses stalkers.as they HATE 'born agains'} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted December 11, 2005 Share Posted December 11, 2005 Hey... were you on here before? I remember your picture from somewhere. Anyway, welcome. UC and Crohn's are awful diseases, they thought for a time I was bound to get it because of the humongoid ulcers (two inches wide and so painful I couldn't eat) I got in my mouth, but that was a couple years ago and I don't have any more symptoms. I was so scared that I would have to live with the pain and embarassment of that kind of disease, and from what I have read, it is entirely possible I could still be diagnoses with some autoimmune disorder... my mom has a rare one (pulmonary hypertension) and I had an allergic reaction of sorts to pregnancy. I was Rh+, uninsured, and didn't have the time or money to make sure everything was ok... it ended in miscarriage. Anyway, hope to see more posts from you. How long ago was your break from the Mormon church? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyHaszard Posted December 12, 2005 Author Share Posted December 12, 2005 Hey... were you on here before? I remember your picture from somewhere.Anyway, hope to see more posts from you. How long ago was your break from the Mormon church? Yes,about 18 months ago thanks for your greet, it was the f**king Jehovah's I was in not Mormons i was in 1957-1992 I was in the cult & now i'm out-Danny Haszard Bangor Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Oh... do'h! Jehovah's Witness. Sorry. I just meant to say that I can relate to autoimmune problems, although I have not had to face the personal struggle that you have. Anyway, welcome back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyHaszard Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 WHY-Jehovah's Witnesses don't do Christmas I was born Jehovah's Witness 1957 3rd generation.Yup,we didn't celebrate Christmas and were miserable the rest of the year too. The reason JW's don't do Christmas is because their Watchtower leaders say so,the holiday has pagan aspects to it and by rejecting it the Watchtower appears "pure". This "demand for purity" is one of the 8 marks of a cult.NOW the Watchtower can use this purity diversion to distract from their own practice of wicked deeds.--Danny Haszard www.dannyhaszard.com JEHOVAH'S CALLING AT YOUR DOOR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Dan, First of all, welcome to ExC. Anyone having the big fuckin' brass balls to break off from the jehovazW is my kind of pigflarkin' insane.. Having visited your website I can't figure out your message, and won't read too much into the evangelical bent you have there. While you are here at ExC you are treated as a welcome guest and fellow excapee from the clutches and chains of religious trauma and slavery. Understand the "forever moving gut". Diabeties has damn near killed the core messenger nerves for my gut, medications help *some* but do little for the constant problems allied with trying to keep things in their peoper places at the right times. Take a ton of your on.ass and on.line time to read the Testimonies section and make as much use of the linked materials here as you care to. Eclectic and excellent group of persons here, all with a wide variety of life expriences. kevin, mean_old_man, L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianka Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 Welcome to the forum Danny. I lost a friend when he was 20 to complications stemming from colitis. Take care of yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Silent One Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 Ah, a fellow former Witness. Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue elephant Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Hi Danny I also have UC, together with my mother and possibly my young daughter. It's a bugger of a disease!! Fortunately, mine is not severe. But it never quite goes away either. The thing that most gives me the irrits about the situation is that stuff where they think that it comes of a "nervous disposition". Definitely not true, but after years of being worn out by the problems, I find I have trouble coping. My UC wasn't diagnosed until I was 40, even though I realise now that i had my first attack at about 18. So, the UC and the fundieism weren't happening at the same time. I don't think I could have stood all those people praying over me and questioning "my walk with the Lord". I have just had to take an extra day of holidays for Christmas because I have been quite sick with it. I was becoming quite unproductive at work because I was so tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 hey danny, I can relate. I have UC also, I was diagnosed at 11. was on the meds for a while, but had to go off them cos they messed up my eyesight. then my catholic family insisted on prayer. needles to say i ended up having to go to the hospital eventually. its better now, not gone, but not as bad. it was miserable during my early teen years. welcome to the forums! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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