Eddie and Pam Childs

Life can turn on a dime. Two weeks ago Eddie Childs was driving to work in Tulsa when the entire right side of his body went numb so suddenly that he had to break with this left foot. He drove himself to St. John's ER clinic where they took his blood and did an EKG to determine his heart was fine. The doctor said if there are issues with the right side, then there is something wrong with the left side of his brain. By the end of the day, Eddie was told he had a brain tumor.
On March 20, he had surgery to partially remove a stage 4 glioblastoma brain tumor, one of the fastest-growing cancers you can have. Prior to surgery, he had been given steroids to shrink tumor but doctors could only remove 90 percent of it. And, since the tumor was attached to the motor strip of the brain, he can no longer lift his left arm, hand, leg or foot. Eddie is now undergoing intense in-patient physical therapy, which his wife Pamela (Pam) Kastner Childs says he likes. "He hasn't called uncle yet, he's working hard." In two or three weeks he starts chemotherapy and radiation at a cancer center.
Eddie's health crisis comes on the heels of Pam's kidney failure. For more than a year, Pam has been on dialysis nine hours a night as she waits for a kidney transplant and has relied heavily on Eddie to help with day-to-day life. "Eddie helps me a lot, Pam said. "He took over the house because everything became so daunting to do along with maintaining my work. I married an awesome man. I love him to death."
Pam's health issues started a year ago last fall when she was running her mailbox business and started feeling sick with what she thought was a chronic sinus infection. By Christmas, the store was very busy and she felt worse but, thinking it was only a sinus infection, took antibiotics and continued to work. She limped through Christmas but by January could no longer even lift her head. Eddie took her to the emergency room where they diagnosed kidney failure. Pam said she thought, "This is a sinus infection not kidney failure – you have the wrong patient," but her underlying high blood pressure had caused both kidneys to fail.
The diagnosis was a shock as she had faithfully taken her blood pressure medicine and had received a clean bill of health from a doctor in July. Unfortunately, the only direction he offered was to drink more water and he left out the fact her kidney function was at 60 percent. From July to December it deteriorated to six percent.
For more than a year now, she tries to sleep while hooked up to nine hours of dialysis each night through a port in her stomach. She is thankful for two donors who have stepped up and is hoping to have transplant surgery this year now that she's finished required testing. While covered by Medicare and Eddie's insurance, post-surgery treatment expenses will still be extensive. For the rest of her life she will have to take anti-rejection drugs costing $5,000 a month, which are not covered by Medicare.
If Eddie's chemotherapy and radiation don't kill the tumor, Pam said other possible treatments could include one being developed at Duke University that injects the polio virus into the tumor and another being developed at Stephenson Cancer Center.
We are raising $90,000 for expenses not covered by insurance or Medicare, as well as co-pays and related recovery expenses. These include the kidney transplant operation, anti-rejection medications, cancer drugs, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, proton therapy, traveling and lodging expenses related to radiation treatments and handicapping the house for Eddie's wheelchair.
Please help Pam and Eddie as they face these life-threatening challenges together. No amount is too small to give. It all adds up and any level of support will show them we care.