Hello, I'm Chelsea and I'm hosting this fundraiser for my father-in-law, Curtis Kimball.

A few months ago, "Big Curtis" was sick, and we thought he may have gotten Covid. He slept all day, had a headache, and was generally feeling unwell. But as he's the main provider for his family, he wasn't able to take off work, and as he doesn't have insurance, he wasn't able to go see a doctor. After about a week it went away.

According to him, he's been feeling generally unwell since May. Around August 10th, dad started feeling really sick again, unable to open one of his eyes. He called into work, which is when we knew it was serious. The next day he was sick and unable to keep anything down. On August 13th he went to the eye doctor, hoping it was a simple fix. The eye doctor told him he needed to be seen immediately at an ER. I took him and Mike (one of his sons) to the ER that day. After waiting at JPS ER for 3 hours and seeing no one he came home and we made a new plan. The next day my husband "little Curtis" took him to Texas Health Harris Downtown. He was admitted that night.

Since then there have been lots of tests, and even more unanswered questions. We're still looking for answers but here is what we do know.

• Dad has stage 3/4 thymus cancer. It is inoperable as it is wrapped around his carotid artery. It is very aggressive. This is literally a 1 in a million type of rare cancer.
• Because of the cancer (or maybe what caused the cancer ) is something called Myasthenia Gravis. Another rare autoimmune disease. This exacerbates the situation.
• He has a small tumor on his pituitary gland. This is apparently common (1 in 4 people have one), but it is big enough that it is causing eye pain.
• Between all of these conditions, dad is making almost no hormones on his own. His brain can't regulate sleep/wake cycles. He can't eat and gets sick often when he tries to.
• He is very week, and at this point chemotherapy and radiation are not an option.

Dad came home from Harris on the 18th and was admitted to JPS on the 30th. Our current plan is to do something about the tumor on his pituitary gland, start hormones and get a feeding tube. He wants to fight, and his family is doing everything that we can to help him get stronger to try to do that.

In the meantime, bills are already racking up. Along with Bobbie Jo (his wife) and Big Curtis' regular everyday bills, they have a $40,000 bill from Harris and are accruing more while he's admitted to JPS. They have applied to SSI, medicare, and Medicaid. We've yet to hear back from any of them.

Big Curtis is a good man. He's funny and smart and sarcastic. He's raised six fantastic children with his wife Bobbie Jo. They've been married for over 30 years, together since they were just kids. All together they have ten grandchildren who adore their "pop pop". King of Madden, Ruler of "the music game", nickname giver to his grandkids. Big Curtis is not the type of man to ask for help. He is the kind of man to take in others who need help, to give all of himself for both the people that he loves and those he barely knows.

I don't know what the future looks like. I don't know how much time we'll have with Big Curtis, or what that time will look like. All I know is that money isn't something they should have to think about right now, as they walk this journey and prepare for the future.

All donations will be used for medical expenses, daily needs (parking fees, food, etc), back medical bills, and eventually memorial needs. If you have any questions please get ahold of me (Chelsea Kimball) as the rest of the family is already going through so much and we do not want to overwhelm them.

I will continue to post updates as we get them.

Thank you.