Edwin is still warded, despite his Sister telling him, “it’s just two nights, we will go to hospital and get your ankle treated, find out what’s wrong and we will go back home.” It’s been almost 1.5 month in hospital. Doctors are still unsure what’s up with the swollen painful ankle. They say it’s unlikely to be infection now.. but why are there fluids randomly collecting in the ankle joint?

This 1.5 month, Edwin has been bed bound due to the pain in the ankle that doesn’t allow him to walk. He has lost much weight and his appetite isn’t good.

On 23 July, Tuesday, Doctors threw us all a bomb, telling us that Edwin isn’t responding to the current treatment (aza and venetoclax). His blast cells in the marrow has increased from 59% (in march’s hospitalisation when they told us it’s a relapse) to now 65%, despite trying venetoclax. They said they have no more alternative treatments left for Edwin. For patients in this situations, they usually have “a few weeks to three months” left. Edwin was devastated. He cried. We all cried. But he refused to believe this is it. So Edwin’s Sister has taken no-pay leave to seek second opinions and to share the caregiving role with Mother (who is elderly and can’t take too much stress too).

Edwin’s Sister has gone around to private haematologists and other Govt Hospitals. The only way is transplant but not all are willing to do as the risks involved are high. Edwin is not covered under private insurance and hence going to private settings would be almost impossible for us. Thankfully, the other Govt hospital offered a glimmer of hope for us. They have suggested a round of strong chemo and hopefully a successful transplant but of course there are many risks along the way. It’s a scary decision but Edwin will never say no to any chance of living. Hence, we have made the decision to do a transfer to the other hospital sometime next week...

The private haematologist have quoted us 200-300k for a transplant to be done. How much would a transplant in a Govt hospital cost?