by serendipity 33 Replies latest jw friends
Yesterday, I was cleaning out the dark recesses of my purse and found THE blood card. I was going to throw it away but stopped. After doing some research on blood in the Bible, I no longer believe in the JW blood doctrine. However, the thought of taking a blood transfusion triggers a visceral reaction, repulsing me.
Have any of you felt that way? Were you able to overcome the feelings? How?
That reaction was ingrained in all of us!! When I started nursing, many years ago, I had that same reaction the first time I had to go to the lab and get the blood. On the way back to the ER, I felt like I was carrying an evil object.(Actually I was carrying 2 units for a trauma vic). I went thru the montions of getting it hung, and in the rapid infuser. After we got the pt. into surgery, the doc cornered me, and asked what was wrong. I didn't realize my demeanor had changed. I explained to him what was going on. He took me up to ICU, intorduced me to pts. that wouldn't have made it without the blood. He was wonderful in helping me work out my fear.
After that, I was proud to go and fetch the blood. I've been able to educate alot of nurses and doctors about JW's. I've actually had the priviledge to help the hospital gain guardianship, at 2 different times, of toddlers that needed the blood to live. One set of parents thanked me for taking the "burden" off of them. I've fought the HLC committee, and won.
shelley
I still have that reaction, as well. But, i'm pretty sure that if i was in the life and death situation where they thought that i needed blood, i would allow it, and that would get me over that problem. W that thought in mind, i got rid of my blood card quite a while ago.
S
When I left the Dubs I took with me a lot of their baggage. One was a personal belief that the blood doctrine still had to be adhered to. Not just blood transfusions, but blood based fertiliser, unbled meat, anything associated with blood. Now I regularly donate blood and feel good about really helping people. The JWs blood doctrine is a senseless pile of crap which causes misery, suffering and sometimes death. I'm glad I'm as far away from it as I possibly could be.
You have just brought it to my attention,I still have that hang up.... I have it on my records I do not want blood or any other life saving efforts .....But that is because I believe at my age I CAN say "death where is your sting " after all isnt it supposed to be a "better place once we die" . But I do realise that if my kids, grand-kids had to have blood & I was the sole signer I would sign for them to have it. They are young with lots of living left.
I've never had to deal with that. The blood doctrine was actually what finally opened my eyes to the sham that is the Witnesses.
If it's simply a visceral throwback to the brainwashing, you might try to just finish the un-brainwashing, by contemplating (and researching) just how repulsive (as in murderously evil) the blood doctrine itself is. When you think about it, this is about as evil as anything any religion has ever done in this world. And why did they do it? The did it on the whim of a handful of very stupid, very uneducated, very egotistical men.
Hi Serendipity,
Shortly after my family and I left the organization, my wife's neice's son, about 3 years old, needed an operation. So, we traveled across state to be there and support her. When we went to the hospital, I never considered the blood issue. But as we walked into the room, I saw a blood bag and IV into her young son. I felt strange, but decided thjat it was none of my business, and set my JW past farther into the background. A year or so later, when my oldest daughter (ex Pioneer, and her husband ex-Bethelite) had a baby, I discovered her hooked up to a blood bag and IV as I entered her hospital room. My own daughter was receiving God knows whose blood. I felt more than strange ... not because of the JW religious issue, but having someone else's blood in my daughter's veins.
I realized then that my feelings about blood had nothing to do with the JW nonsense doctrine, but about my own sense of possession, control, and perhaps boundaries. It did not take long to rewrite my senses to accept that my daughter is bound to me by more than DNA, but because she is a great daughter who loves me and I have been the best dad I could be ... we are bound by the heart. I need no feel loss of control or possession or my boundaries violated. Rather, I needed be, and was, pleased that she could make her own decisions and not be afraid ... just as I raised her to do. Her decision to have blood was personal, between she and her doctor, and not about me, or about harming my relationship with her. Rather, she presented my grandson to me to be the first one to hold him, because she was proud of me, and wanted me to be proud of her ... and I am proud of her ... and that is where the importance is for me.
Jim Whitney
>>I was going to throw it away but stopped
Do you still carry it? My concern is that you'll be in an accident, unconscious, and that little bit of culty-cardboard is going to be their reason to let you die.
You can always throw up and go into therapy later at the idea of getting a blood transfusion, but at least you'd still be alive.
Please, at least don't carry the card with you.
Dave of the "Too many have died already" class
I got over it by picturing the dolts at the healm of the watchliar society in my minds eye, and telling them to pi$$ off. They have already had enough of me. No More!!
My blood card was one of the first things I threw away. The blood policy is that confused now anyway, it must be really difficult for jws to know what is allowed and what isn't.
