Shirley Chung has some troublesome information.

The Top Chef alum shared that she has been identified with stage 4 tongue most cancers after docs discovered a tumor beneath her tongue in May. The analysis got here following a sequence of dental points that began in December.

“I was very calm when doctors delivered the news,” Shirley wrote on Instagram July 26, “as a chef, I’ve always thrive under pressure. I was extremely focused on getting all the tests and scans as fast as possible, so I can start on the treatment plans.”

However, Shirley quickly confronted a troublesome alternative when it got here to her well being journey: She might endure surgical procedure to have her tongue eliminated or undergo a extra experimental therapy in Chicago that had would use radiation and chemo to take away the most cancers, which she stated had beforehand labored in “a unicorn case.”

“Higher survival rate, or keep my tongue?” she wrote. “I chose to keep my tongue, I am a fighter, I am a chef, I can be that unicorn too.”