At age 26 had Acute Myeloid Leukemia, relapsed 4 times, gone into ICU thrice, trying to stay alive.

Edwin has been fighting his disease (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) for the last three years of his life since 2016. He had barely entered into the workforce after the completion of his National Service. Although doctors were initially confident of his disease in remission after five rounds of strong chemo, Edwin relapsed 9 months later. Edwin quickly fell into depression but was still compliant to treatment. He underwent chemotherapy for five months and was told that he would require a transplant right after. Unfortunately there were no match from his family members nor from donors internationally. Edwin quickly fell into another deep depression because he couldn’t understand how his medical journey would continue from there. In 2018, Edwin found himself stuck in limbo, unable to move forward and it was only when he learnt that one of his best friends passed that he found motivation to move forward with the clinical trial called Gemtuzumab. Although doctors had high hopes that gemtuzumab would help Edwin’s condition, he had a second relapse. He then began his palliative treatment of Azacitidine alone as outpatient. This required him to go for daily jabs for 7 consecutive days every 28 days. He only finally told his family after the second cycle of Azacitidine. During his third cycle, he suddenly developed a fever and was warded for further testing. Edwin readily agreed to be warded as he had planned an overseas trip with his second sister, Marilyn, in two weeks’ time. What was initially thought to be just a few days of observation turned into a 53 days stay. Edwin spent his 28th birthday in the ICU, intubated, due to a respiratory failure. After spending a total of 2 weeks in the ICU, Edwin developed ICU psychosis and lost 20kg, together with his ability to talk and his mobility. Through physiotherapy and speech therapy, he relearned how to eat and how to walk. He was then able to be discharged. However, four months later, Edwin was warded again due to a persistent headache which caused him sleepless nights. Despite the trauma of long hospitalisation stay, Edwin faced his fears and checked himself in to A&E on 2 March 2019. During this hospitalisation, Edwin had a full blown (3rd) relapse due to the delay in administering Aza as he was still having fever and headache. Eventually, after many blood tests, scans, and biopsy, Edwin’s initial condition of preauricular sinus infection quickly become what they called Sweet syndrome. During this period, Edwin’s BP had dropped to 75/50 and an MRI scan of his brain also suggested a bleed in his pituitary gland which controls hormones. Treatment is still ongoing for his various conditions.