Heather's Last Post:

This is Heather's sister Jenifer writing to everyone this will be Heather's last post she passed away around midnight on Friday July, 27th.   On Monday, Heather had two big seizures  one included losing consciousness and coughing with labored breathing.  She was taken to the local emergency room via ambulance and then was transferred to the Emergency Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She had a few more seizures that evening, but appeared to stabilize and was scheduled to come home on Thursday so she could continue making arrangements for brain surgery that was scheduled for Thursday August 2nd.  Unbeknownst to her doctors, Heather had a bleading ulcer most likely caused from the prolonged use of steriods to control brain swelling.  The ulcer burst and she aspirated on the blood coming from her stomach.  She was resuscutated three times and the decision was made to place her on life support so that family and friends could say their goodbyes.  For a normal person to have suffered lung aspiration and be put on life support there is only a 2% chance of being able to pull through.  Because of Heather's complex medical condition her chances were much less.  Even if Heather would have made it without life support in the future she would not be strong enough to endure surgery and her tumors would continue to grow and swell making the pain unbearable.  Heather was taken off life support on Thursday July 26th at 4:30 P.M and passed away around midnight.

Heather has been such a blessing for all of those around her.  It was an honor and a privilage to be her sister.   To close this last post I will share a message that Heather sent to one of her friends who had another friend that was struggling.  It is amazing the depth of insight and wisdom she had and it is just like her to have the last word.

June 25Heather Shannon
Micky,
Here are my thoughts for your friend who is blaming God. Where the * is, is written specifically for. You can use this how ever you wish. God led me to write this tonight for some reason, so here you have it. Let me know if you have any questions.


The question that you asked me last week, “why do we often blame God for the bad things, then give up on him”. That is such a difficult question to explain simply. Well, it is human nature to blame somebody for the bad things. And when we can’t control what is happening, why not turn to God, right? He is in control of everything, now isn’t he? Several times in the book of Job it is stated that it is a sin to question God and ask why, although eventually Job did eventually ask why all these bad things are happening. We all need an explination, and sometimes we are put in situations that we can’t understand, fathome or deal with for sure. Sometimes, our faith is tested, not by God, but by satan. It is spiritual warefare. Sometimes we are put in situations that aren’t fair or bad, and the way that we deal with them or how we look at them (our perspective) is what will pull us through it.

There is a story in the book of Mark about a group of diciples who went to the well to tithe. All of the rich ones threw just a portion of their money in the well for Jesus, but then a poor woman went and threw her last two pennies in the well. She knew that Jesus would provide and take care of her. Too often we worry about taking care of ourselves first and forget that God will take care of us first if we just have faith in him.

So, why does God let these bad things happen? Simple, he doesn’t neccissarrily “let” them happen. But it is up to us to use them for his will. He is in control for sure. For example, I don’t believe that he “gave” me cancer. But, he did put me in a waiting room at a doctors office to sit next to somebody who had no hope so I could share my story and help them along the way. He did humble me to realize that many other people have heavy crosses to carry and need more love, hugs and friends.
Did Jesus make murders kill people? Of course not, but I bet there are some murders in prison who found Jesus then were able to reach others while in prison.

*Does Jesus take loved ones away from us to punish us? No way! But he did die on the cross so that we can have eternal life NOT ON THIS EARTH. That is the key Mickey, not on this earth, in heaven. We are put here on earth to serve a purpose. That is one part of our job here on earth. A specific purpose of his will and sometimes we will never know excatally what that purpose is, but God knows, and once that is fulfilled, he will take us home. When we lose a loved one it hurts so much because we miss them, but ( I know it sounds mundane) it is a blessing. Here is why. This world is so full of pain, hurt, uncertain and struggle. We strive everyday to try to be happy. Can you imagine just to be in bliss ALL OF THE TIME?
I know that the pain and hurt seem so unfair I was just there a week ago. I lost my focus. I completely forgot that my life is in God’s hands. I lost my strength because of that. Believe me I was a mess! But then I remembered. God does have a plan. It doesn’t always seem fair. This world doesn’t seem fair, it is because of satan, not because of God. God loves us soooo much! You know, if you saw a child walking into the street and he was about to get hit by a car, you wouldn’t think twice about running out there, pushing the kid away and getting hit yourself instead, would you? That is the same idea of Jesus dying on the cross for us. He has that deep love for us. If he knew that that car was going to hit us and we would be stuck in a horrible place he would be heart broken. That is the whole idea of being forgiven for our sins.
So, it is okay to ask God, “why”. Life isn’t fair sometimes. But he isn’t punishing us. Infact if you feel that he is punishing you because of a loved one who passed away, he actually is blessing that loved one for giving them a much happier, better, lovlier place.
I am dying of cancer, and it isn’t fair to my loved ones and I feel really bad for them, but I always tell them that when I do die, just know that I am in heaven smiling because I beat them there.

I really hope that you can find your focus on God. It is such a diffucult life without him! I have been there several times. And one of them is just recently

Here We Go Again

I know it has been a while, but there has been big news and docs have been trying to piece together what to do. So, we finally have an answer. Here we go with what is happening. I will start with good news. I just had CT scans of my lungs and there is no growth and everything is stable. Also, there is no evident tissue damage from the lung radiation. YAY! Awesome!
The not so good news, (well, it could be good. It is all perspective). I have two new tumors on my brain. They are very very tiny though. They aren't hurting anything, so we are just watching them for now and when they get big enough, we are going to to radio-surgery on them. That is radiation with the halo.
I have two large tumors on my brain (we have known about these since we found out I had brain tumors) that are growing and becoming one tumor.  These are causing really bad headaches and seizures due to brain swelling. Actually I am not having seizures anymore because I am on really really high doses of steroids, but my headaches are sometimes unmanagable. So, the cure? The brain tumor board decided to just get rid of the problem. Yup to remove the tumors. On August 2, I will be having another brain surgery. It will be at U of M and the same surgeon will perform the surgery that did my last one. The largest tumor is growing near some large veins, so there is some risk of bleeding. The plan is to go in and remove the largest tumor and if things go well, he will continue to remove the one that is next to it. If there are any complications, he will close me up and reschedule another surgery to remove the other tumor.
So, for now, we are getting things in order for after surgery as we just got the date. I know that everything is in God's hands and he will make sure that everything is covered.
Once again thank you so much for your prayers, love and support! They really do mean a lot to Kevin, me and the boys!

Heather