Dear Friends, Thank you so much for your love and support. We really appreciate it and feel amazed by your generosity and friendship. I set up the gofundme page on Thanksgiving upon repeated requests from several friends (who later penned the open letter and shared the link on social media) and a colleague in xiaohong department set up another gofundme page for us and circulated it mainly in his department. The unfortune in our life brought us the full realization of how fortunate we are to have you all in our lives. Besides What you can see on the fundraising pages, friends have been using their personal connections in the medical field to help us, staying with xiaohong overnight so that i can get some sleep at home... You are beautiful humans!

 A lot of things happened since Thanksgiving and the "story" i posted on gofundme is not very accurate anymore. Please allow me to update it briefly here: 

 11/26 we left for San Antonio for the trial 

11/29 xiaohong was denied for the trial because elevated bilirubin, which was caused by liver metastases. The doctor said that the elevated bilirubin level would disqualify him for any trial anywhere.

 11/30 We returned to Ann Arbor and plan to restart chemo on Dec 7 to bring down that number. 

 12/2 We went to the ER because of the persistent excruciating pain and was hospitalized. 

 12/4 Doctors informed us xiaohong is now too weak to receive chemotherapy. His main, most critical issue is that his small bowel is not working. We are giving him time for his small bowel to "wake up." There are some good signs and we are hopeful. But until then, he can't eat or drink. 

12/5 xiaohong started eating mushy soft food and walked for about 1000 meters with a nurse protecting him! The pain is under control. 

 He is still in the hospital and spends most time sleeping. The fighter is really tired. I brought our kid here to spend more time with him. Please pray for xiaohong.

The original "story": 

Dear friends and colleagues,

Thank you so much for offering your help. We are extremely grateful for your thoughts of us, and your emotional and financial support.

Xiaohong was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer of the cecum with omental metastases, probably the trickiest kind of colon cancer metastases to tackle. He had soldiered through six months of intense chemotherapy in 2022, followed by a traumatic 12-hour-long surgery with 35 days of hospitalization and multiple complications that took months to heal and are still impacting his life. That surgery, unfortunately, turned out to have not removed all the cancers. He was back on chemotherapy for another half year. At the end of August 2023, scans showed that cancers were growing, indicating that standard chemotherapy was no longer effective and should be stopped.

Since then Xiaohong embarked on the extremely stressful process of seeking clinical trials, learning about the entire scientific field, sending out probably a thousand emails, traveling to meet the doctors, and then learning that he was not qualified. During this process, his pain has increased gradually and he was hospitalized twice due to extremely painful complications.

What I am trying to say by describing the suffering to you here is that Xiaohong is a real hero and warrior. He has been fighting so hard for his family and his dreams that are not yet fulfilled.

Finally, he found one clinical trial that he is eligible for and it will take place in San Antonio, TX, starting on November 28, 2023. We will have to fly there frequently. In the meantime, we learned that his annual income will soon be drastically reduced, as he is being evaluated to move onto either part-time work or long-term disability (in which case his income will be dropped to 44k per year). I have about 8 months to go to receive my Master of Social Work. I have been working as a "graduate student instructor" since January 2023, which is the only way to waive the $25k per semester tuition and brings me a teaching assistant stipend. Our savings will be drained even more quickly once the trial starts and his income decreases.

Our friends have been our rock. We are so grateful for your efforts in forming a WeChat group for us and reaching out to support us. I created this page, hoping this would make giving, receiving, and communicating easier. As I am juggling taking care of Aubree and Xiaohong, coursework, internship, teaching, grading, and (soon) job hunting, I won't be able to thank you individually. But please know that we are deeply thankful for your support in any form.

With gratitude and love,

Lang