At the request of many, condolences can be sent to:

Mr. & Mrs. J. Thomas

3448 W. Naomi Lane

Queen Creek, AZ 85242

Lucas James Thomas May 10, 2009 to June 8, 2009

Beloved Son of Amber Marie and Joshua David has gone home to be with our Heavenly Father.

May he rest in the arms of our loved ones.

Final Hours

During the past 48 hours daddy, mommy, and grandma have met with several doctors as Lucas continues to deteriorate. The lastest ultrasound scan has shown a development of a severe (and for Lucas) terminal condition called Periventricular Leukomalacia or PVL's for short.



All of us who have been with Lucas during the past 72 hours have watch the little guy begin to weaken. He has continued to show signs that the brain bleed and PVL's are severe. He is unable to digest his food and is losing weight. Everyone was hopeful that this was only a bad day, but throughout days of observation, it has become apparent it is not just a bad day, but the beginning interference from the brain bleeds. Lucas has become too tired to wake up and can no longer breath well on his own.



Amber and Josh have been told Lucas will most likely not make it much longer. They have had to face the awful news that the brain bleed was too severe; words no one wants to hear and no one wants to live through.


Please pray for their family as they spend the final hours with Lucas as our Heavenly Father comes to take Lucas home.


The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.

A Sleepy Day

Today grandma snuck in to sit for a while right at the end of 3pm cares just in time to see everything go crazy in Lucas's pod. 3 babies came in all at once and two of them were twins and the other was a 24 weeker. It was nuts in there for hours as everyone worked on the 24weeker and the new twins. They called for extra nurses and one would peek around the corner and check on Lucas and I every few minutes, but left us alone for the most part. Because he was just finishing up on cares the nurse left his hatch open so I could see him off to sleep. It became apparent that Lucas was not sleeping soundly. He hates noise! And that 24weeker was causing some commotion, so grandma asked a nurse to come close the pod so he could rest better, and she did. Grandma sat around for several hours watching over Lucas while the hectic events were happening. Lucas was asleep but he was restless, it was clear he was not liking the noise, so when the nurse came back in, I let her know he was not sleeping as well as he normally can. By time 6pm cares rolled around the nurses were still very busy with the 24 next door and a charge nurse came in and had Lucas's cares done in 10 minutes; most of the time we take our time and participate, but not today, it was a zzzoooo. Lucas was rolled on his tummy (his favorite position) and quickly went right into a deep sleep. I can always tell because he forgets to breath once in a while in a deep sleep. Overall he is doing great and last night he was back up on the weight at 2lbs 11oz.

June 4th, Day 25, A Conference; The First of Many

Today we all met with the head pediatrician, Dr R and the neurologist, Dr C, we discussed the future outcomes possible with Lucas and what and when we could expect. His brain bleed is greater on the left side, but still present on the right. It is starting to reabsorb, but it will be a slow process over an approximate 8 week period; just the same if you or I got a large deep bruise. It is in the Parietal Lobe of the brain, what cell are affected we and the doctors won't know for a while. What we do know is the cell that are damaged will not work, some cells in the brain are in reserve, so to speak, but if they are able to "Fill in" they won't function at the same level or rate that the original ones were programed for. We just won't know until he was suppose to be able to do something and he can not. The thing with preemies is they are behind in achievements anyways so we don't really know what the calendar dates will be.

We did get to do his 6pm cares and right on cue he woke up and began to play. The pictures are of him waking up. Also Amber got a syringe with milk in it tonight and was able to put some in his mouth. Lucas loved it! To watch him was funny. He just sat there waiting for more. He loved it in his mouth. This will be the first big test after he comes off the ventilator. Dr R says it will most likely be Saturday when she comes back from her days off. She wants to be there when Lucas comes off. Of course Lucas can change the plans. If you look at the pictures you will see he loves to grab hold of his tube and has been known to put it out himself. The doctor says if he does it again they will leave it out. After getting back on the CPAP they will start to introduce him to more breast milk orally and move towards bottle feedings. The suck, swallow, and breath condition will be the first major hurdle coming up. So far the neurological pathways at this level are intact. We pray for the next level too!

Monday Blur...Tuesday's Watch

Daddy spent the morning with Lucas on Monday, while mommy went off to work with her old boss. He was nice and gave Amber her job back after the other clinic replace her while out on maternity leave.

Anyways while Josh was at the hospital two doctors approached him and told him they had set up a meeting for Thursday with the whole team and parents; I was invited too. Apparently, the two doctors told Josh that Lucas most likely will have a serious disability in addition to Ceribal Palsy. They told him this was from the brain bleed and that occurred from contracting the haemophilus bateria. They continued to tell daddy all the nasty things that occur with this type of illness for preemies. Needless to say, daddy was devastated. Grandma had to meet him on the way home and buy him a drink. Amber didn't take the news well either.

For me, I am well aware of all the risks and probabilities and closely watching Lucas. He still shows no signs of the severity the doctors spoke of and yet the doctors say he has a 90% chance of experiencing these disabilities. I have questions so I guess we will see what they say on Thursday. Of course there is the chance Lucas could be in the 10% range, I don't know, but I am watching.

I spent the day with Lucas, he had his diaper changed 2 times by grandma, and now that he is being fed by a timed-released method, the dcells have diminished to almost nil. Lucas spent 40 minutes awake watching me watch him. He sucked on his binky for about 15 minutes just before he went back to sleep.

Tonight mommy and daddy showed up after Amber got off work. I could see that they were still upset by the doctor's report and it showed. Neither Amber or Josh have slept much from hearing the possible outcome on Lucas. Prayer's are needed and reassurance that Lucas has the hand of the Lord upon him. Let's pray Lucas is in the 10% range and the Lord won't give the kids anything they can't handle.

Daddy's Kangaroo Day 3 Weeks Old Today!

Today Lucas was doing well. Daddy arrived around 10 this morning to kangaroo him (mommy was having a party). His oxygen level was at 26% before they pulled him out of his bed. Once, they put him on Daddy's chest and Lucas got comfortable and relaxed. He breathing improved and the nurses had to turn down the oxygen to 21%, which is what we breathe as adults. After an hour into holding him, Lucas's oxygen level starting going down along with his heart rate. This has been happening during the past few days causing mommy, daddy, and grandma some concern. I was trying to stimulate Lucas by rubbing his feet, but his heart rate was at 91 and his oxygen level was at 58%. The two of the nurses in the NICU came over to assist in bringing his levels up by rubbing his back and head. This happened 2 other times while I was holding him, but the nurse explained to me that this can be caused by reflux. Adults get acid reflux. The nurse explained that Lucas has increased his feedings so much that he is getting 16ml every 3 hours, causing a full tummy and reflux. Every time he has the reflux it causes him to stop breathing, which is a natural reflex to keep food out of the lungs. So the nurse said Lucas will most likely go on a more staged feeding to reduce the reflux.

Lucas managed to last a full two hours during his kangaroo time with Daddy. His latest stats as of 10:30pm was 2lbs 15oz (almost 3lbs) and was at 26% oxygen doing well.

Thursday News

I spoke with the kids last night as they left the hospital. Lucas was doing well and lost a slight bit of weight after the monstrous gain he had. Not unexpected, especially after throwing such a crying fit getting his tube moved from his mouth to his nose. Amber said he had tears. That would make any mom cry.
Daddy tried to hold Lucas for his turn, but big brother Brayden wanted all the attention and was set to let everyone know. The hospital family room had quite an experience with Brayden jumping from all the walls. Guess other plans will be necessary when it is daddy's turn to hold baby and Brayden is there.
The kids got a chance to talk to Dr R regarding the latest ultrasound. The baby's blood clot is starting to recede and they doctors could see what some of the damage is for Lucas. Part of the parietal lobes on each side have died off due to the bleed and this scan revealed how it will impact Lucas's future. The area of loss is in Lucas's motor skills development. This means he might have trouble coordinating movements of his arms, hands, legs, and feet. He will be assigned a physical therapist who will work with Lucas to re-channel his limb movements. Fortunately the brain is capable of rerouting, over time, this learned activity. We won't know the long-term outcome for a while. The doctor will have the specialist talk with Josh and Amber next week sometime, where they will get more information. Grandma knows that extra stimulation to these areas of movement will allow the brain to rewire itself over time. Also, the latest data on brain development has change in the past 3 years and research is showing early intervention makes a big difference in outcome. Lucas is going to get plenty of help to catch up and develop his motor skills. The kids have pictures and should update more tonight.

What's Happening?

Well Tuesday grandma had to head home for a long over due medical appointment. See grandma has been off work from her normal duties of flying jets around the sky due to an injury while at work, so she had to come back to Calif. I spent the day packing and stopping by the hospital to see the little guy, who was spending a lazy afternoon snugged up with mommy. Yep, Amber got to hold him for the full 2 hours without any complications. I arrived just as he was been placed back in his bed. The nurse had turned up the room light so Lucas was under the covers, so to speak, with a cloth diaper placed over his face. Of course grandma had to peek and was delighted to see Lucas wrinkle up his face when the lights hit his eyes. He squinted and made it quite clear to grandma to turn off the lights. I was elated! See one of the more common problems for preemies is blindness so the fact that Lucas can sense brightness and darkness is fantastic. We won't know about his total eyesight for many months, but we know now he sees light and dark for now and we will take this accomplishment with joy. Keep praying!
Oh, Amber didn't get to have any of the scheduled Baby Shower's as planned. Peggy, from work, is having a mommy/baby party this coming Sunday. Part of the "games" will be to guess Lucas's weight so I have been instructed not to provide the actual weight gain by Lucas. Of course I can give clues. The doctors and nurses have discovered Lucas has quite an appetite now and have increased his food consumtion to 8 cc's every 3 hrs, as of Wednesday night. It seems like he is a little piggy now when it comes to eating. Way to go grandson! I can tell you he is gaining weight and beginning to fill in his wrinkles.
Last night the nurse got tired of having Lucas's feeding tube down his mouth, so he was switched to a more conventional method of down the nose. Let me tell you he was "extremely" mad at the nurse for that change. Lucas was so upset that mommy had to leave the room. Fortunately when it was all over mommy was able to go back in and comfort Lucas. He was really tired from the whole ordeal and just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, and he did. Later that night Lucas's big brother dropped in for a nighttime visit, where Brayden and daddy, with Amber were able to say goodnight to Lucas. Grandma misses you too, little buddy, but I will be back for the party. Keep going and beat the odds kid! We are all praying the brain ultrasound on Thursday hold positive news.

Memorial Day May 25th A Very Good Day.

Must You Wake Me UP

Mommy and Grandma had the afternoon with Lucas. We got to give him a bath and see him struggle to get his way. We found out he doesn't like getting soaped down, but he loves getting rinsed off. Also we woke him from a good nap to give him a bath and he let us know he was not please with our inconsiderate ways.

The good news he is gaining weight! Tonight he breaks the scale at 2lbs 8oz's YEAH WAY TO GO!!! Finally he is eating like a little piggy.

The doctors have increased him to 6cc. That is fantastic! He is still on the ventilator and we have found when he sleeps deeply he forgets to breath, otherwise he would be okay off the vent. Maybe a few more days. His bloodwork is looking good and there is no signs of the brain bleed causing any problems as of yet. Keep the prayers going folks, this is a long journey for this battle. We need them!

More Pictures from Saturday

I Am Awake Now

It's Grandma's Turn

After yesterday's fiasco grandma elected to go over and spend the afternoon with Lucas. I arrived just in time to meet his day nurse and she was real nice and on the ball when it came to taking care of Lucas. Lucas was off of the blue light and had his own tent. That means no visors or hats etc. She filled me in on his daily progress and Dr R came in today and added two more antibiotics. Dr R says nothing is growing from the bloodwork yet, but it may not since Lucas has been on antibiotics since birth, and she feels he is still fighting something since he is working too hard to breath. Seeing him back on the vent was okay because it was obviously apparent he was doing much better on it.

I got to do his daily 4pm cares, sponge bath, diaper change, and feeding. He was sooo sleepy, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep, which I was pleased to see he was so relaxed. The nurse said he ate his whole lunch of 4cc's of milk (about a tsp). Amber and Josh stopped by after spending the day with Lucas's big brother Brayden. Brayden had a runny nose and was off limits to the NICU. Amber and Josh did Lucas's night cares and Lucas weighed in at 2.4 oz. Finally he is going up in weight.

Back On the Vent

Amber got a call from the night nurse letting Amber know that the baby was placed back on the vent after several episodes of turning blue. Guess the night nurse saw what we saw! Next time Amber and I will call the doctor up when the nurse is too busy to pay attention. Fortunately this is not the norm for the NICU, but they were short staffed and had older babies that needed to be held quite a bit.
Grandma will head over this morning and daddy, mommy, and Brayden will arrive later.

I Just Ate; It's Time For My Nap

Amber and I went to the hospital around 4pm to take care of his daily 4pm cares, ie. changing the diaper, feeding, and measurements. So far Lucas is still on the assisted CPAP and has his scary moments (at least scary to us) where he forgets to breath and his heart slows down and he turns blue. For those who have not witnessed this kind of excitement, it takes about 30 seconds for Lucas to turn a vivid deep blue. The nurses are use to it, we are not. I thought I would need a heart monitor after a few blue turns by my grandson. The nurses say this is normal for a baby Lucas's size. My thoughts on this is to tell Lucas to just get bigger in a hurry. Overall Lucas is holding his own. We found out his white count is down and his billiruben is slightly up, so blue lights it is. The rest of his bloodwork is looking okay, so they will repeat it in the morning. Amber got to hold Lucas for the 2nd time and he was mad at the nurse for messing with him after lunch. All he wanted was a nap. Tonight he weighed the same, no gain, no loss.

Not Such A Good Night

We talked to the night nurse and she said Lucas had trouble with the CPAP all night so the doctor has ordered tests. It could be the infection is back stronger or something else. Also he did not digest his food last night so I guess it will be a rough spot for Lucas again. Hopefully it is minor and controllable. He may need to go back on the ventilator if it becomes too difficult to breath again.

A Day with Big Brother Brayden

We got a late start to the hospital due to stuff at home, but it all turned out good. Brayden was allowed to spend a little more time with Lucas. Also Josh got a call from Dr R and Lucas's 2nd brain scan was done today. The results indicate a very slight change in Lucas's favor. He is starting to break down the blood clot. We need to continue to pray that he is able to absorb it all without blocking the circulation holes for his spinal fluid. This is all up to Lucas so we have to patient and wait until next week's follow-up ultrasound on Thursday.

Mommy got to give Lucas his 1st big bath and he enjoyed the whole experience. He kept his eyes open throughout the big event. Afterwards, Brayden arrived with daddy and watched Lucas get fed. He is up to about a teaspoon now and he looks like he is finally gaining weight.

Lucas Continues to Thrive

The kids had a great day with the baby and big brother Brayden was even allowed in for 5 minutes to see his little brother. Brayden was quiet and said "look he is sucking on his fingers." Overall Brayden thought it was pretty cool to finally meet his little brother. The night update on Lucas continues to be positive despite yesterday's news. Daddy had a great time holding Lucas. Tomorrow will be Amber's turn again. The rules are no clothing, only skin to skin contact with Lucas. By the looks of the pictures daddy didn't mind. Oh Lucas weighed in 2oz heavier tonight, he is now up to 2.4 oz and ate all his dinner tonight without spitting any of it back. He is taking now 3cc's or about a 1/2 tsp. per feeding every 3hrs.

Day 11 I Got A Binky (Pacifier)

Today mommy and daddy came in and daddy got to hold me for the first time (pictures to follow). I loved daddy holding me and when I squirmed daddy rubbed my back (which they said not to), but I loved it! See they don't know everything. I got tired of hearing the kid next to me screamin so daddy had to put me back in bed just after an hour of being held. Tomorrow the neurologist will take another picture and we will find out by Friday what is going on. Also I guess I get all the tests again. Good news they are feeding me more and I am starting to gain weight. Mommy says if I am a good boy the nurse will let me get a bath from mommy instead of the nurse. Yea!

What a Day

The word from the doctors are Lucas's ultrasound indicates a grade 4 brain bleed; not good. The good news is he is showing no symptoms of this type of bleed. It is in fact a puzzle to the doctors and they are shocked at the results. Of course this freaked Amber, Josh, and grandma out a bit. Doctor R said they have no way of determining when or why this happened, but they are prepared to act if necessary. There are some serious complications possible with this diagnosis. However, Lucas continues to surprise us each day. Today he decided to remove his own ventilation tube, so the doctors placed him back on the CPAP and so far he is doing well with it. Time will tell! Good news he was held by mommy for over an hour today.....his first time out of the box. He loved it so well he fell asleep and forgot to breath, mommy had to gently stimulate him to wake up a bit and breath. I have some great pictures of him being held, taken by daddy. Please continue to pray for Lucas's remarkable progress and that his little brain will recover from the bleed without complications. Thank you to everyone that is supporting Lucas, Mommy, and daddy.

A Call from the Doctor Day 9

Well Amber and I took the morning to just rest and wouldn't you know it the doctor calls. They took Lucas off the vent again and he is on the CPAP and doing well. Dr R. also said she had the brain ultrasound done and wants to discuss the results in person, we both held our breaths. We don't know what it means, but we are enroute to the hospital. Pray it all goes well! I will update everyone asap. Grandma Jojo

My 8th Day and I Get a Day Off

Mommy and Grandma showed up at my lunchtime change. A new doctor was on (not part of my team) and he was out to lunch, so mommy says. Everytime mommy asked him a question my nurse had to correct him...funny! Mommy changed me again and this time I kept stickin my foot and hand in my diaper, it took all three of them to change me...Heehee:) Grandma calls me a little stinker, I don't know what that means, but I like the sound of it.

The nurse says mommy can hold me tomorrow. I hear them say no tests today, my day off. It's about time! Oh, I get my diaper changed more frequently and I get fed more often and more of it too. Someone is finally listening to me. Hey could someone tell me what fiesty means, the nurses keep telling me I am fiesty.