Today is the one month anniversary from the day when we started taking on this new journey. It might be helpful to write down what has happened in the past month so that we will not forget.

On 3/17/2025, Rebecca went to the ER after a few weeks of dizziness and nausea with the solemn warning from her Chinese doctor, the undercover oncologist. The CT scan showed a 2.5cm tumor in her cerebellum. She was transferred to the neurology ICU at UCSF in an ambulance. The doctor told us that the tumor was blocking a duct which caused fluid buildup in her brain which could be life-threatening. She must stay in the ICU under monitoring while she waited for surgery to remove the tumor. On the next day, another bomb dropped that the full-body CT scan showed another mass in her lung which was about 6cm in size. At this point, we just focused on the brain surgery while putting the looming threat of the lung mass at the back burner at least for the time being.

By God’s grace, she was put under the care of one of the best neurosurgeons. We did not do any Google search or other research. Under the emergency situations, God just gave her the best care. Everyone in the medical team was extremely supportive and caring. They often went above and beyond to serve us. As her condition seemed to be stable, she moved out of the ICU into a spacious private room. She joked that this was like a 5-star hotel room. She just picked up the phone to order room service from a full menu. If she walked outside into the corridor, she could see a beautiful view facing the Golden Gate Bridge. All these small gifts from God made her wait for brain surgery much more bearable. The night before her surgery, she recorded video clips for her family and brothers and sisters at LGCC. She worried about speech problem which was a potential side-effect of the surgery.

3/24/2025 was the big day. She was rolled down to the pre-op area before 6am. The neurosurgeon chatted with us while showing full confidence in the success of the surgery and that was comforting. While Thomas was waiting upstairs, he would receive regular text messages from the nurse regarding the surgery and Rebecca’s well-being which was very comforting.

Praise the Lord that the surgery was very successful and it took around 3 hours. After the surgery, Rebecca did not have to go to the ICU for monitoring and was conscious when getting back to her room. None of the potential side-effects appeared and she was back to normal diet the next day. She was discharged from the hospital on 3/28, only four days after her brain surgery. It was indeed God’s grace.

On Sunday 3/30, we went to Sunday worship service at LGCC. Brothers and sisters were surprised to see Rebecca recovering so quickly. She had the opportunity to share and give glory to God on stage. That was the highlight of her week. But the pathology report released the next day brought her to a low. It confirmed that she has stage 4 lung cancer with brain metastasis. It was really like a rollercoaster ride. We tried not to think about the lung mass before the surgery but it has now taken the center stage.

At this point, we are still waiting for the UCSF 500 gene panel test report for the oncologists to decide on the treatment plan. In the past few weeks, we have been waiting for the surgery, pathology report, MRI and PET scan images, etc. We have done a lot of waiting and waiting can become more and more difficult. May God grant us peace and comfort as we face the uncertainties in our journey ahead. We do not know exactly how the treatment will go but we trust that God is in control and He has the best plan for us.