Kristy's Story...A Very Sad Ending For a Wonderful Man

Michael Shane Thomas
(September 18, 1979 - April 19, 2012)

MICHAEL “SHANE” THOMAS of Dittmer, Missouri was born September 18, 1979 to Trudy Sue Thomas and died Thursday, April 19, 2012 at Barnes- Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri after a courageous struggle with brain cancer for more than two years, at the age of 32 years 7 months and 1 day.

He is preceded in death by his grandparents, Yuell and Edna Thomas.
Shane is survived by his wife, Kristy (nee LeGrand) Thomas of Dittmer, Missouri (Married March 31, 2000 in High Ridge, Missouri), his two (2) sons, Kyle and Grant Thomas of Dittmer, Missouri, his parents, Sue and Tommy Fisher of Dittmer, Missouri, his sister, Nancy Powell of House Springs, Missouri, Kristy’s parents, Roy and Pam LeGrand of High Ridge, Missouri, Kristy’s sister, Stacey (husband, Jon) Cheek of High Ridge, Missouri, nieces and nephews, Sydney, Carson, Katie, Haley, McKenzie, Brady, Chase and Leland, and an extraordinary number of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Shane worked construction as a member of Local #110 but spent every free moment of his time with Kristy and the boys – hunting, fishing, four wheeling, coaching baseball and playing guitar. By their faith, Shane and Kristy were led to membership in Raintree Baptist Church in Hillsboro, Missouri.
Family and friends are invited and encouraged to attend a Visitation on Monday, April 23, 2012 from 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at CHAPEL HILL MORTUARY, 6300 Highway 30, Cedar Hill, MO 63016 with Services on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at CHAPEL HILL MORTUARY followed immediately by Interment at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens. Memorial contributions may be made in support of the family, with checks payable to “Kristy Thomas” and forwarded to Farmers and Merchants Bank, 1010 Crossroads Plaza, High Ridge, MO 63049.

Kristy"s Story...We Will Always Love and Miss You Shane

Michael Shane Thomas

September 18, 1979  -  April 19, 2012

Funeral Services:

Chapel Hill Mortuary

6300 Highway 30

 Cedar Hill, MO 63016

Visitation:  Monday, April 23rd 3pm-8pm

Service: Tuesday, April 24th 10am

In lieu of flowers, an account has been set up for the benefit of Kristy, Kyle and Grant Thomas.

  Please mail or drop off checks made payable to: Kristy Thomas

 

Farmers & Merchants Bank

1010 Crossroads Place

High Ridge, MO 63049

 

 

Thank you everyone for all your love, support, and prayers.

Kristy's Story...He Squeezed My Hand

Kristy just called me from the hospital to say Michael just squeezed her hand when she ask him too. She told the nurse and the nurse said she told him to squeeze her hand earlier and he did. The doctors had said any movement was just reflexes, he couldn't obey commands...but he just did.

Kristy's Story...MRI Results

Around noon today a group of Shane's doctors called us in for the MRI results. They had one screen with his MRI from 10 days ago and another with todays. There was obviously a big difference. The tumor in the pons area, the newest one, has almost doubled in size. It was not fluid putting pressure on his brain-it is the tumor. The doctors say there is nothing else to do for him. We ask for surgery, they said it would kill him, we ask for chemo, they said no time for it to work, then we ask for radiation, they said he has already had more than he should have had. They said Michael was in a coma and has no brain activity.

Needless to say it broke our hearts, especially Kristy, Kyle, and his mom. We spent a few hours crying then started questioning the doctors answers. Why not surgery? He will die without it so why not try? It has been successfully done before but poses a very high risk of permanent damage. He may end up with his "thinking" part of his brain but in a wheel chair on a ventilator for the rest of his life. Would Michael want this?

Chemo is out. the tumor is growing way to fast for it to help. But why not radiation? Maybe a few low dose zaps of radiation would stop and possibly shrink the tumor. So we requested a meeting with a radiologist to go over the possibilities. Kristy also wants to talk to the doctors at Duke Hospital for their opinion and advice.

Tomorrow will be a very rough day. In our hearts we know the answers, we just don't want to accept them.

Kristy's Story...Long Week for Michael

Well there was no magical cure for Michael this week. Since the MRI he has progressed...backwards. He quit breathing on his own and we lost all response from him. He was slowly slipping into a coma. The doctors could not figure out why the change in him came on so fast. They stopped all his pain medicines hoping it was them putting him in the trance-like state. But that still did not bring him around.

Yesterday around noon they did a CT Scan and discovered he had swelling in his brain. They needed to do surgery immediately to relieve the fluid causing pressure. If the surgery was not done he would die shortly but the surgery could also kill him. The ICU cleared his room and did the surgery right there. Michael made it through the surgery but the drain was not working. The surgeon had to make some adjustments but finally had it draining. He was immediately showing signs of improvement.

But that didn't last long. It quit draining and Michael was slipping backwards once again. At 3:00 am they had to do another surgery on the other side of his brain to try and drain more fluid. The surgery went good and the second drain was working. Michael started immediately showing sign of improvement once again.

It is now 6:30 am and Michael is scheduled for another MRI shortly. The doctors hope to find out what is putting pressure on the brain stem.

I will update the blog as soon as possible. Pam

Kristy's Story...MRI Results

The MRI results came in Saturday. Both tumors have grown and merged together. Washington U says there is nothing more they can do for him. We are waiting to see if Duke has a magic card up their sleeve.

Kristy's Story...Michael is Slowly Improving

Well it has been a long 25 days since my last post on March 11th. We have been a little busy to say the least! Me with Kristy and Michaels kids and Kristy with staying at the hospital day and night to help take care of Michael. But I have some time now to catch everyone up on Michaels current condition.

Michael has had a rough road to climb the past month but he is doing it, with Kristy's encouragement. His lungs have been his biggest hurdle to get through. A week ago the RSV infection in his lungs was finally gone. Since then he has gone from the ventilator to having a treach put in to help him breathe. Since he no longer has a big tube down his throat he can communicate, if you can read lips. Reading lips is a lot harder than you would think and he gets frustrated when we don't understand him. He won't be able to speak until the treach is capped off and he is breathing on his own.

The past several days they are turning his air from the treach off and having him attempt to breathe himself. They started the first day with one hour on his own, then they went to two, then four, and now he is doing close to 8 hours, twice a day. Maybe a few more days then he can be totally on his own.

The next hurdle is getting his body back to at least where it was before all this started. With having the stroke and being in bed for a month he has lost all his muscles. Yesterday a physical therapist started working with him to gain some strength back. He was moved to a new section of Barnes yesterday called the PIC to work more with him on physical improvements.

Along with the physical therapy they are going to start concentrating on what got him in this situation in the first place...his brain tumor.  Right next door to where he is in the hospital now is the cancer section. Michael will have an MRI today to see what the tumor has been doing this past month. Then they will decide if he can handle more chemo or if something else can be done.

For those that visit Michael in the hospital his new room is in the North section. Park in the North garage on Park View Street. Take the elevator to the 3rd floor for the bridge to the hospital. Look for the Shoneburg elevators and go to the eighth floor. I don't have a room number yet so you will need to ask for it.

I will update again soon.
Pam