My trip into Heaven-Two different times!
A story about my illness and how with my Faith, however strong or low it may have been at different times, I have survived and gone on with life. My dream is to get back into heaven, because of the peace and serenity I found there. I am realizing though, I have got to find it within myself. These stories are very personal to me, and the first one happened in December 1994/January 1995. I am just now talking about it. The second time happened in June 2001 when I was ACTUALLY in a REAL Coma for 5-7 days.
I assume most of the readers here at Authors Den know about my illness and the two brain lesions that I have. For those of you that are not familiar, I will go into background history for you and explain SOME things in a little more detail for those that think they already know some of the story. I am just full of surprises, am I not? I surprise myself sometimes when I write with the emotions that come up when I write!
I was born in 1970 and the baby of four girls. Momma had clues pointed out to her all my childhood years that I had the brain disease, hydrocephalus, but Momma was young and did not know to have things like that looked for at the doctors office, etc. Back in the 70’s, hydrocephalus was Barely even heard of back then! When I was 22 and on the hydrocephalus website, I would talk to the Mom’s who were 33-40 years old and had hydrocephalus and were considered the “Dinosaurs” of the generation of the “Hydrocephalus” Disease process! It was neat to talk to them but I have since retired from that website. I have not had to have a shunt revision for hydrocephalus since November 10th, 1998. That is a Damn Miracle for me! It is because I got the latest type of shunt put in me, called an anti-siphon device by a neurosurgeon that is now retired. His name was Dr. Eugene George in Dallas. He was an Awesome Doctor and I miss him terribly! If he was back, I would take him back in a heartbeat and never say a harsh word again! I swear! (I am sure he is laughing right now!(smile)) You have to understand the long story between us to understand that statement!
Momma and Daddy divorced when I was just four years old but Daddy was a good Christian man and let Momma have the house and he got an apartment near where he worked in Garland, Texas. Daddy would come and visit us every weekend but as I got older, I understood that Dad could not relate to us when we were children and that is why I never felt like he understood me until I got older, that is about the age of 19-20 years old. Dad paid child support and he did not remarry until November 1989. Dad stopped paying child support when I graduated from college in May 1992. GOOD MAN! He is now married to Elaine and he has a Step-son, Cory which he adopted. I now have a step- brother, Cory Henry! He is now 24 years old and going to a Community College.
Kind of nice having a brother since I have grown up in a house of all females. I do not get to see him much though, however. Dad and Elaine and Cory live about an hour and a half from our house which, when you live in the Dallas/ Ft.Worth area Metroplex, can seem EONS away!
I enjoyed growing up with Momma and doing all odd things because, at that time, I thought every ones family did all those odd things! When I got older, I realized of course, that Momma may have Adult A.D.D. and she had gotten through about of cancer and I am sooo very lucky to still have her in my life! (The Adult A.D.D. might explain for all those odd things we did when I was a child.) We are now thinking that I might have Adult onset A.D.D. as well. I had many characteristics of it as a child though, however, even before the brain lesions came along.
I was sexually abused and raped by a friend of the family. I know my Momma feels guilty for it to this day, some to a degree, because I am still not over it because of emotional abuse by one person. That one person is herself. Her verbal bickering and what she has said is “not yelling”, but what I say is “Major yelling”, has caused me to hide and be afraid of confronting people. I would rather lie and undermine my confidence than to confront her and other people on issues. I am getting better on this subject though. You should have seen me in 1994!
That is one reason why I went AWAY to College in Missouri, to get away from my Momma! I had to come back to North Texas though, because I was at death’s door. I believe I SHOULD have DIED back then, but did not know any better, and continued to live. Now, I have got to put up with Momma and figure out how to live with her! I am working on that and it is getting better with time! It helps that Kristina is here to take care of me now!
I went to College in Missouri in Fulton at Westminster College my first two years and then my last two years I transferred over to William Woods College and finished up. At the time I was there from 1990-1992 and graduated from William Woods College, it was still an All-female college. Both Colleges were in the same town. I really excelled at William Woods and got a job, 3 months after I graduated, at the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department in Jefferson City, Missouri. I was a starting Computer Programmer and worked my way up. I got a few pay raises each year but then, at the end of 1994, I had to come home to North Texas because I was almost DEAD basically. Yes, it really was that bad!
Now, I am to the Heaven part for those that have been waiting……
Let me first explain that while all this was going on, I was diagnosed at the age of 18 years and 11 months with an “inoperable brainstem lesion” causing obstructive hydrocephalus”, it was communicating and then non-communicating and then went back to communicating several years later. I immediately had a brain shunt placed and over a period of nine years it has been revised 14 times. In September 1997, we finally found a Neurosurgeon here, in OUR OWN AREA, that could take out my brainstem lesion for I was again on my deathbed and going quickly! I waited 8.5 years and the thing was taken out. I was the 23rd case in the WHOLE USA to have Brainstem Surgery AND not have any side effects, essentially and return to driving until my license got taken away in 2001 for having too many seizures. I have not driven since. I then went SIX years with CLEAN MRI scans. On August 9th, 2004, a second lesion appeared on my yearly brain scan. This I was not expecting at all. You can read some of my poems to get a hint of my mood! I was very down and depressed. However, I thought the lesion was in the brain and going to cause major problems again for it is on the shunt side! It is not in the brain! It is on the skull! Is that weird? I just knew God made me special! (grin)
My neurosurgeon and a second independent one told me “Do not worry about it” so I finally decided not to and to go on with life! However dull or bright it may be!
I came home from Missouri at Christmas time in 1994. I had 3 shunt revisions over the Christmas holidays and was IN the Hospital during Christmas Day! Yuck! My sisters came to visit and all. Momma too, of course. Dad stayed with Elaine and Cory. He visited me once I got home. I remember watching the television and the parade and then falling asleep.
Suddenly, I was on a bus and there were several OTHER people from the Hospital Neursurgery ward on there WITH me! I was so surprised! I tried to ask them where we were going but they did not respond. We were going up the highway interchange to where it curves and instead of the bus curving we went up and over the rails and flew into the sky! I was totally confused and thought the bus would fall and we would all die! The people, a few of them, started looking a little apprehensively also! Right when I was going to ask the bus driver something, there was a GREAT BIG CLAP of THUNDER and we all saw these hands, praying in the sky and then there was a picture of an old man with a white beard, and he said, “You are now entering the Gates of Heaven”! Everyone saw the picture of the old man, too! I was astonished! Then, there was this curtain of colors in the sky! They were squares of the most brilliant and spectacular, illuminating colors! Sort of like a quilt~! As the bus got closer, the “curtain” parted open, and “let” the bus in!
We arrived there and were led into a Big room on a dorm room college like campus setting. I guess it was that way because I had just graduated from College and was taking a small course at the community college back in Missouri before I HAD to come home.
There were several people in line, some from the bus and some I had not seen before at all. One guy told me he had been there for 20 years! That frightened me! I waited in the appropriate line and got my “ticket” at least I think that is what it was. I then traveled to Japan and met my penpal and her husband and her new baby! God apparently gave my body its physical sense because she could see me and I had dinner and everything. About 3 weeks after this incident, for proof, she wrote to me and said what a nice time she had and she hoped I would come back again soon one day! How is that for you?
I then waited in the CORRECT line to GET INTO Heaven! However, at the Gate, I ran into a problem. That old man that I saw in the sky was there. He asked me my name and I told him my full given name, “Rebecca Estelle Henry”. He looked through SEVERAL books and then said, “Wait a minute”. It seemed forever but then he came back and told me I could not come in for awhile. I asked him what does that mean? He leaned back through the gates and someone put his chin through and whispered in this guys’ ear. He then told me that the Higher up man says my job on earth is not through and I MUST go back to earth! After that, I woke up in my room with a nurse and doctor over me and the doctor holding paddles from a crash cart.
I had heart monitors on me when I went to sleep and apparently something had happened to my heart while I slept. I had surgery the day before so it could have not been anything related to the surgery, they assumed. There presumption, I had sleeping tests and found to have narcolepsy at odd times, not everyday though. I get it maybe once a month. I do have sleep apnea though. I have a machine. That helps and now I do not get apnea except when I do not use my machine. Then I may have narcolepsy. Case solved but going to Heaven and coming back? I shall ALWAYS remember that!
Oh Yea, when I woke up, I was crying from the experience because it was just soooo beautiful! The doctors were all concerned but I then just HAD the knowledge within me, (and let me tell you, the Bible I know not a single thing about! My faith remains strong for the love of Christ I have, and the prayers I make, that is all.) I am going to start reading the Bible soon one day, maybe after surgery when I am holed up and cannot move much!), and I asked the nurse, “Who is St. Peter?” and she replied, “Why Becky, He mann’s the Gates of Heaven and is real old!” I believe and know in my heart, that the man I met that night in late December 1994, was St. Peter, manning the Gates of Heaven!
I know this story is long, so I shall write about the next visit to heaven tomorrow night, before surgery. Thank you so much for reading.
No, I was NOT on any medication Mr. Ed Kostro and Mr. Ed Matlock! I am just preparing for the upcoming teasing that might occur,knowing you two guys! (grin)
I am quite serious with this story~!
Written by Becca E Henry on October 26th, 2004 at 11:52pm CST,
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