Recounted By Deana Zhu
In 2022, I felt a pulling sensation on my lower left abdomen. I didn’t think much of it at first, but when it didn’t go away, I decided to go for an ultrasound scan. The scan revealed a 2.2cm ovarian cyst and I was advised to go for further assessment. My gynaecologist did a scan and assured me not to worry about the cyst as it looked normal. However, when I returned to the gynaecologist two months later, I discovered that the cyst had grown from 2.2cm to 5.4cm.
The gynaecologist instructed me to go for a CT (computed tomography) scan, and both me and my husband started to worry as the cyst had grown a lot over a short period of time.
The CT scan revealed an enlarged mass in the ovary with cystic spaces measuring 5.4cm by 4.7cm and mildly to prominently enlarged lymph nodes up in the area.
We sought a second opinion from my husband’s oncologist friend and heeded his advice to get a PET CT done to detect and monitor the spread of cancer. The result showed intense signals and suggested that immediate medical attention was needed. (Anything above five for the result was worrying, and my reading for the Standardised Uptake Value (SUV) was 15.3.)
We were devastated.
Considering that the cyst had doubled in size over two months, it looked like an aggressive ovarian cancer with spread to the lymph nodes and was likely to be in its third stage. The situation had completely caught me off guard. I was filled with many questions. I asked myself why this had happened to me. Why didn’t I proceed to do the MRI scan earlier? Why didn’t I show the original ultrasound scan to my husband, or to his oncologist friend whom we had had dinner with a few weeks ago? I was filled with regret and despair because there were so many missed opportunities to detect the condition earlier.
After discussion with the oncologist, we decided the best way forward was to treat the condition aggressively and to try to remove as much of the cyst as possible surgically. A 5-hour operation was scheduled for the following week, and we got an onco-gynecologist and a colorectal surgeon to also be in the surgery room.
Just a few days before the surgery, one of our helpers caught COVID and I had to be isolated immediately to avoid catching the virus or it would mean a further delay of 2 weeks for the surgery.
That week was a living hell for me. My husband and I cried constantly. He was afraid of losing me, and I was worried about what would happen to my children if I was gone? The tears just kept flowing. And things just kept getting worse.
The house started leaking due to the overnight rain. Days before my surgery, both my in-laws, my helper, my son, and my husband all tested positive for COVID-19 one after another. My son was also sitting for his O-Levels a month later.
One morning, I opened my Bible App and the verse of the day was from James 5:14 – “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
I picked up my phone and called some of my friends to tell them about my condition and asked for their prayer support. I asked them to pray that the cancer would not spread to other organs, that is would be cured and not spread to other lymph nodes, and that the surgery would go well without any complications.
At one point of time, there were 10 Whatsapp groups of friends who were covering me in prayer.
I was prepared to be strong for my kids. Whatever time I had left to live, I was ready to fight this cancer. I declared that the Lord is with me, He will help me and uphold me. I went into the operating theatre shouting out God’s Name and His promises over my life.
When the operation was over, I woke up in the ward and called my husband. To my relief, he explained to me that the doctors said that the operation went well – but they couldn’t find any cancer cells. All they saw was inflammation and a lot of pus. All the doctors couldn’t understand why this was happening, because I had no symptoms of inflammation at all. I had no fever, pain or increase in white blood cells. All my symptoms lined up to the diagnosis of Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer, but yet they could not find any cancer cells!
Before the operation, I asked God for another 10 years of life so I could see my children grow up and graduate from college. In the end, He gave me more, far more than I asked for.
This is the God we worship – the God who loves us and answers us when we call to Him.
This testimony was originally featured in video form on Cornerstone Community Church's Revival and Healing Service.