DO 20687/85

1. It's very serious, Lord bless & keep her. Rebuke the Devil, in Jesus' name! Don't let him take away that wonderful fruitful little life. She's Your child, Lord. Bless her, in Jesus' name.

2. There are usually a number of factors that come together to cause appendicitis, like strain, not enough exercise, constipation‚ eating the wrong things etc. She was under nervous strain & excitement about the birth of the new baby. She was also working very hard along with the others, on the recordings, & getting ready for the disbanding of the music unit. She was also about to have her first period.

3. What you eat is very important. It's very important to eat under good circumstances & not under strain or pressure. What she ate & when she ate it & where she ate it are all very important factors. It's very important if you feel sick not to eat at all.

4. If your appendix gets infected, it can suddenly start gas forming just like botulism, & if it ruptures sometimes you can get peritonitis, infection of the membrane which contains the bowels.

5. A ruptured appendix is one of those mechanical things that I think doctors are for‚ like setting bones, cutting out bullets & things like that. Of course‚ if people have the faith, they can expect the Lord to set it or dissolve the bullet or do a real amazing miracle, but my faith kind of runs along the line of letting the doctors do what they can do, what is possible, & let the Lord take care of what is not possible. Let the doctors take care of what they can do & let the Lord take care of only what He can do, the impossible. Of course, if you have such faith that you can get the Lord to do the miracles‚ you don't need doctors.

6. But it definitely has to do with primarily your eating habits, along with your bowel habits, along with your exercise habits & along with any unusual nervous or physical strain, stress & particularly body stress (such as possibly her periods starting, & I understand she had her first period while in the hospital), or long hours of prolonged sitting in a strained position. Overeating & poor bowel elimination are usually considered the primary causes of appendicitis.

7. The bowel, the large intestine, seems to use the appendix as a valve so that when the bowel gets overloaded it allows some of this excess material to go into the appendix, & if the bowel is still stuffed too much & not emptied frequently or sufficiently, then the appendix has no chance to deflate & get rid of the material, & then it can get sore & infected & cause real trouble such as actually bursting with infection‚ or gas etc. caused by the infection.

8. When you're in that condition, any kind of stress‚ strain or even vigorous exercise is dangerous. It's too late for the exercise & in a sense it's too late for the elimination, so one of the best things you can do is try to clear out your bowels. But at that point it is dangerous to either take enemas or cathartics (laxatives) like castor oil or prunes. Laxatives are quite dangerous when your appendix is already sore & infected. You're apt to cause a violent reaction that can really cause trouble, & over-exercise can do the same.

9. So I would be very interested in exactly what Army ate even as much as three or four days before her problem & exactly what her elimination pattern was & if she's had problems with constipation & exactly what types of foods she was eating‚ how regular she is in her living habits & exercise etc. Those things don't just happen without your violating God's natural physical laws somehow. If you eat right & you're resting right, exercising right, living right, eliminating right etc., you just don't have those things, that's all.

10. When I had my last attack I know I had overeaten & eaten some things that I shouldn't have eaten, excessive beans, which Dr. Koger said anybody with a proclivity for appendicitis should never eat‚ not only because they cause gas but the hulls are very harsh on a sensitive bowel & appendix. He said I shouldn't eat anything that could irritate the bowel & appendix, like certain hard nuts.—Especially things with very small seeds that could get into the appendix & cause trouble.

11. I remember the night I had that horrible attack in Anaheim, California, I had driven all day from Oakland, California to Los Angeles, 450 miles non-stop. We stopped once at a filling station to get gas & go to the toilet, but I had foregone having a BM all day because we were in a hurry & didn't want to have it on dirty filling station toilets etc. I had eaten in a hurry, rushed off in a big rush, hurry, strain, stress in the morning, packing & all, carrying a heavy suitcase. That's another thing that aggravates that problem, lifting heavy objects, that type of strain.

12. And on the way, for lunch they gave me two peanut butter & jelly sandwiches that my Mother made in the backseat while we were driving so as not to stop, & I sat in that position for at least eight or nine hours without proper elimination, without proper activity, stuffing myself with those peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, crunchy nuts & stuff, & it all ganged up on my appendix, & I sure paid for it. Only the Lord had mercy & spared me.

13. But you can't tell me that nearly all of our problems like that are not usually caused by ourselves & our violation of God's natural health laws in some way. Either we're eating wrong or we're not eliminating properly, regularly, sufficiently‚ or we're not living regularly with regular eating & living & elimination habits & activity habits etc, getting under too much pressure, stress & strain. Even any excessive strain of excessive sex can have a definite effect on your bowels, I know it did with me. It seems to weaken your resistance or it puts a strain like a hernia or a ruptured strain on the lower muscles of the abdomen. And all these things combined together are very hard on anyone who is sensitive to appendicitis.

14. Appendicitis makes you very sick, causing a lot of gas, intense pain in the lower right abdomen. Sometimes appendicitis can cause pain in both sides but normally it's right there on the lower right side where your appendix is. I would be interested to know exactly what kind of pain she was experiencing at that time. Was it equal on both sides of the lower abdomen? If it gets very pronounced on the right side then sometimes the gas goes clear over to the left side & you have pain on both sides.

15. It is very important to know those things to advise other people how to avoid appendicitis, if you can trace back the evidence & the clues just like a mystery to find out really who–dunnit or what-dunnit, what really caused it.—Because "the curse causeless cometh not" God's Word says. (Pro.26:2) As you know, whenever I get sick for any reason, I'm always searching around for why or what & it's usually not difficult to find out what caused it. It's nearly always a violation of God's physical laws & natural laws‚ I'd done something I shouldn't & I'm paying for it.

16. To be specific again: Did she overeat at any time preceding that appendicitis?

17. Did she have any problems with good elimination? Was she having a regular BM each day at a certain time? Did she have any constipation?

18. What kind of foods was she eating? Did she eat anything she shouldn't have?

19. What kind of activities did she have or not have … ?

20. And what kind of pressure, stress or strain or excitement was she under at the time? Even riding around in a car‚ the vibrations of the automobile, if you already have a sore appendix or a sensitive appendix‚ that definitely can affect it.