The best my Chinese immigrant father could convey to the doctors at Yale New Haven Hospital was that he felt “strange.” What he could not say: he felt dizzy, imbalanced, uncoordinated. What he could not know: he had brain cancer. Had my mother, a medical resident, not suspected he had a brain tumor and called it off, a planned lumbar puncture would have lessened the pressure in his spine, collapsed the tumor in his cerebellum onto his brainstem, and killed him. In the end, a team of brilliant neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists let me keep my two-parent home. My parents’ story—starting from nothing in a new country, raising a family, beating cancer—first inspired me to become a doctor.
In the day-to-day grind of medical school, it’s easy to lose sight of what motivates us, what is really important to us. In class last week, we learned the exact decision tree that was involved in my father’s care. That moment made me realize I need to do more to further the causes I care about, to keep the bigger picture salient in my mind. I’ve decided to shave my head and raise money to help others beat medulloblastoma. I hope you will help me raise money for researching childhood cancers like my father’s!