Mission accomplished!

Van speaking: It was such a wonderful blessing to be home with the saints in Stake Conference and be able to fulfill the mandate that I had received from President Lawrence. It was such a wonderful thing to have our family all here this weekend. I’m home from the hospital and getting stronger day by day until I report back to the Hospital a week from Tuesday, March 9th for round two of Chemo. We probably won’t write another blog until then and just spend time enjoying our family while we can and take advantage of every second.

Wendy speaking: It was a very emotional day seeing the Lords hand in our lives helping Van be strong enough to speak in Stake Conference. He did such a good job talking on the service of missionary work. For the longest time I didn’t even think I could do service on the Sabbath but boy was I wrong. Heavenly Father’s children have needs seven days a week not just six. Service is the actual application of our religion. We can sit around and talk about helping people, or sit around and talk about programs or activities but it isn’t until we actually serve and minister one on one that the gospel actually comes alive. Van used an example in his talk today about a brother that was on his way to Church with his family and saw a less-active neighbor working on his shed. So he stopped the car, sent his family on to church and went to help his neighbor with his shed. As a consequence of this act of service and others like it, both of these men are now serving as Bishops in our Stake. We have been the recipient of this kind of service for the last couple of months. Wonderful people have put the gospel in action on our behalf and we are grateful.

An Answer to Prayer

Last night I was able to go (without Van) with President Ashby and his wife to a Night with a General Authority” provided for all the Seminary Teachers (full and part-time) and their spouses. President Eyring said a lot of wonderful things but his talk was based on the theme: To strengthen our commitment and ability to bless the youth. He said we have 40,000 teachers in over 100 countries teaching the youth at this time. He also told us four things we need to succeed:


1. We must qualify to have the spirit
2. We must receive understanding through the spirit to teach
3. Live the gospel so we know by the spirit what to teach
4. Teach the gospel in a simple purity. Not our own… Plus many other wonderful principles.

Today, Van accomplished his goal of speaking in Stake Conference at the Priesthood Session. He rested this morning so he would have the strength in his legs to stand and talk for 15 minutes. I drove him to the Stake Center just minutes before he was to speak. He had to wear gloves, a mask (until it was time to speak), and I had to wipe the podium and microphone down with hospital sanitizing wipes. Then they had to take him out as soon as he was finished speaking. He was weak and shaky at the beginning, but the spirit came and strengthened him so he was able to finish strong and communicated the message the Lord wanted him to give. The Lord worked miracles so this could happen today. It was an answer to all of our prayers.

Another brother (Quinn) joins Van's Fan Club!

Tonight when we got home I asked him if he wanted to change his clothes and get out of his suit?  He said, I don't really want to because I miss my clothes.  It was so cute that he really wanted more than anything to stay in a suit and tie.  I think he would have slept in it if he didn't have to wear it again tomorrow.

Living from miracle to miracle

Van’s pain reduced dramatically this morning to the point he can live on just IB Profin. It truly is a miracle! Thank you so much for your faith and prayers. As of tonight, he hasn’t taken any narcotics for pain. It is sure a turnaround from the last few days. We came home from the hospital this afternoon and Van has been working on his talks for Stake Conference. He is so EXCITED to accomplish his goal of speaking in conference. Miracles had to actually happen for this to take place. I’ll remember to ask for everyone’s prayers when we need our next miracle.


Van Speaking: There sure is a God in Heaven. I love conference; the spiritual feast that occurs every six months. I for one am really excited to hear what counsel President Lawrence and President Scholfield have for us. Whatever it is, it will be the Lords will. It will be the mind of God, and the will of God for us in this the Tooele East Stake. See you at Conference.

Pray for a Miracle, please

We spent the night in the hospital with a pain pump. Van says it is wonderful to not have any pain. His problem now is that his body is so saturated with narcotics he is tired and sleeping all the time. His oxygen levels are low until the narcotics works their way out of his system. They really aren’t sure why the pain is lingering so long.

Update on Bone Marrow Donors: There are no sibling matches. We just found out Donor #1 was not a perfect match. Donor #2 is being tested and we’ll know in 10 days his or her results and Donor #3 didn’t match at all. But don’t be discouraged because we always do things the hard way. If this #2 donor isn’t a match then the Doctors will decide if they will take the risk and use Donor #1 even though it isn’t a perfect match or if they will try cord blood. 

For the past month, Van’s goal has been to speak in Stake Conference this Saturday and Sunday. He is scheduled to speak at the Priesthood Session on Saturday and the General Session on Sunday. Van wants so badly to be with the saints this conference. We are asking everyone to join with us in praying for a miracle. 

 Van with his pringles, oxygen sensor on his finger, oxygen in his nose, pain pump, and I.V. Saline Solution

Pain, Pain, and More Pain

We went back for our out-patient appointment this morning and after seeing how much pain Van was in, which was a whopping  10, they quickly gave him some Toradol through his I.V. and realized they needed to admit  him.  We are in room E806.  The Coordinator was joking with me and was wondering if we were trying out all the rooms to see which one we liked.  Really this is only our third room.

Van’s sister JoLyn came to stay with him for 3 hours today and let me go and do whatever I wanted to.  Where do you think I went?  Some of you are right, IKEA!!  I love just wondering around that store.  Some of you know that is how my house is decorated in a modern, clean, fun way.  It’s fun to get ideas and think about them.  I haven’t been in a store like that to wander in for over two months.  When I returned, Van didn’t even miss me (just kidding) because JoLyn gave him back rubs because of his spams.  It was really helping him relax.

The Pain Management Team came to see Van tonight because the first pain medicine in his pain pump did not work  for his body.  He was on  two different pain medicines, two pain patches, nausea medicine and now a pain pump – and all this didn’t give him relief.  So they have decided to put Diloted in the pain pump, add a heating pad and keep Toradol going around the clock.  He has oxygen on and they are closely monitoring him (it’s hard to remember to breathe when you are sedated this much). 

The only time Van woke up today was when he was in tremendous pain.  But right before I left he woke up and actually talked.  I kept kissing him and telling him how great it was to see him today.  He’s pretty handsome bald, don’t you think?  I bought us hot fudge sundaes tonight so we could have a date night.  I know it’s only Wednesday, but I couldn’t wait.

Rocky Road

     Last night, Van’s fingertips went numb, he started shaking and he said all food tastes like cardboard. At midnight things started going downhill. Van started having severe pain in his lower back with super bad back spasms. We tried all the medicine we had available and when it didn’t work, we called the doctor and she tried to help, but after talking to her twice throughout the night and with no good results, she had us leave to go to the hospital around 5:30 this morning. I just wanted to thank the Principal at Tooele High School, Steve Livingston, for feeling impressed to pray for Van in his classroom right as we were arriving at the hospital. He needed those prayers along with all the others that were praying this morning.
     We already had an out-patient appointment this morning, so we just arrived a little early. The Doctor promised she would have morphine ready. I called when we were 10 minutes out and made sure they were ready for us. They gave him some powerful medicine, but it only helped the spasms and not his pain. So they gave him a larger dose and it only helped for 15 minutes. After four different I.V. medicines and two pain patches, the pain went from a 10 to a 6. I personally wanted it as low as a 1 or a 2, but was told it probably won’t happen for a few days and he’ll just have to bear the pain. The Doctor thinks the pain is caused by the Neupogen shots. Van has been receiving the shots this past week to stimulate the growth of his white blood cells because they were all killed off with Chemo. His counts have come up quickly, but it is causing a lot of pain deep in his bones. He also had back surgery when he was in High School and the scar and pain are in the same spot. He had a horribly painful lumbar puncture a week and a half ago from which he is still feeling the pain. They are stopping the Neupogen shots for now, but we’ll have to go back tomorrow morning to get his blood work done and see if he is ok. We were able to come home at 5:30 tonight, but will leave at 8:30 in the morning for testing again. Van is ok with that because he just wants to be with his family even if it is for just a few hours.
     We did find out more about our donors today. We found out that out of the three donors the first one didn’t match like they wanted, the second one went in to be tested last week and the third one finally went in yesterday to get tested. Now it will take a few weeks to do more in-depth testing of their blood to find out if either one of them will be his “match”. In a way this is good. Since it will take a little longer to get a donor, the Doctors have decided to postpone his Phase 2 Chemo Session a week later. So now we won’t go back to the hospital until March 8th. Van is so excited to have a real week with his family!

What happened to my hair?

This morning Van wasn’t able to get out of bed so our five year old fed him breakfast in bed and then I went to take him his pills and looked at his pillow and guess what I saw? Hair strands all over! I started getting so excited and had him come downstairs so I could start shaving his head. Once we were done, Josh said he would like a hair cut but he wanted just a little bit of hair left on his head. Once we were done with him, Grandpa Heder said, I never lost my hair when I had cancer so I’ll be a part of the team. We took a three generation picture of bald, bonding men.

Three Generations

Van, Josh, and Walt Heder

Van used to teach at Cyprus Seminary for three years and his entire faculty came to visit him today--Barbara Morgan, Rory Bigalow, Sean Anguiano, and Clint Udy. It was a wonderful time for him to be with them. This is what they told him. “There are two things about Van that are always consistent. He had good looking hair and wore male hosiery (designer dress socks).” And today he has neither hair nor male hosiery, so you know that Van has hit rock bottom when he doesn’t have either one. It really is different to see my husband in anything but a suit and tie. People always teased him because he would get caught washing his car in his suit, but without his jacket and wearing an apron. I miss those days.

Cyprus Seminary Faculty