Alys Journey

02/06/2026

Today, I graduated from clinic! 🥳👩🏻‍🎓💪🏼 no more treatment, just Dr appts! 🙌🏼 God is good!✨

✅Minimal nausea/ GI
✅Headaches gone
✅Appetite returned in full force
✅Stem cells engrafting
✅Blood type changing to my brother’s
✅Still regaining energy and balance
✅Central line removed
✅Numbers up and up every time!
✅Dry skin af 🙈

and finally…… REMISSION!!!!!!❣️I appreciate every one of you and your prayers and good thoughts! So very grateful 🥲 I didn’t want this journey but it’s making me fight hard which I guess is something God knew I was capable of handling….

Xoxo,
Sweets 🧁

P.s. You are exactly where you’re supposed to be in this moment💗 Be you✨

💯🖤
~J

12/26/2025

Quick update:

✨Leukemia is in remission!
✨Stem cells have engrafted!
✨I feel like a new woman!
✨Christmas was the first holiday
this year that felt “normal”…
✨My energy is coming back!

After feeling awful for most of the year, then sick as a dog after the transplant, it feels amazing to be this far along and on my way to total body healing! I am abundantly favored and blessed! God is GOOD! I’ve made peace with my situation and know that I will be taken care of, no matter the outcome! I’m not sleeping near as much as I was, my appetite has returned in full swing, and I’m returning to a healthy weight!

Thank you all for the love and prayers through 2025… Lookout 2026, I’m bacckkkk! 🥳🥳🥳

Special thanks to my parents for seeing me through the other side of this and taking care of me and Asher during the hardest year of our lives!! Much love!🫶🏼

10/25/2025

Today marks exactly 2 weeks since I got my new stem cells, thanks to my bro!! 🥳🙏🏼

My Drs are impressed by how quickly my body is turning things around and my WBC count is rapidly multiplying! Sooo they’re going to send me home early, likely this coming Monday!🎉🎉🎉

I cannot wait to start the next phase of my healing and get back home to my family! I still have a ways to go before I’m out of the woods, but my symptoms are finally easing up after 2 weeks of treatment wreaking complete havoc on me…. Ahhh, finally some relief! 😌

I am so thankful for each and every one of you who sent prayers and love my way in any form.. I’m comforted in knowing that I’m wrapped in all this love and the prayers are definitely working!💕 So to anyone who wants to send a note, cards or letters, please forward to my parents address as I will be recovering there for the rest of my 100 days. DM me or my Mama if you need it!🙏🏼 They are veryyy heartfelt and appreciated!

I’m not afraid to keep fighting. I will come out of this stronger than ever. I am healthy. I am well. I am healing. I am determined. And I’m one hell of a warrior!✨

“With man, this is impossible, but with God, ALL things are possible.” —Matthew 19:26

06/21/2025

Round 3 at Shadyside!🤪

Current updates:

4 more weeks of chemo💉
Numbers are looking 👌🏼
Getting my strength back 💪🏼
Headache & fever got me admitted 🤒
Hopefully a shorter stay🙏🏼
There’s heart monitor stickies on my 👀

Stay weird, friends! 😂 Life is too short to be anything but yourself.

05/26/2025

Welp, I’ve been out of the hospital for about a week now… I was released on the 14th then promptly readmitted on the 16th for 4 more days due to a severe reaction to the lumbar puncture/chemo push they did in my spinal fluid… All preventative measures to make sure the leukemia doesn’t travel to my nervous system… And no signs of anything going on in there. Thank goodness! 🙏🏼

Now that the headache has subsided, I am starting to feel like a normal human again and have been feeling sooo much better. Getting into a new routine at home & am reunited with my little man! Very veryyy happy about that and so is he!☺️☀️

Next up, I start an 8 week aggressive chemo protocol this week. I’ll be going to the ‘burgh 4 days in a row, early morning, for 2 weeks straight to receive chemo and 2 more spinal taps.🥴 (not thrilled about it)… However, I still have my head on straight… Still a badass warrior princess….💪🏼👸🏻⚔️ Still fighting the good fight!☠️

But yeah.. any idea when this s**t will pass?!😅🙃🙈 I just want to get through it and be better! Trying to be patient, positive and just trust the process… 💫 Additional prayers and good vibes this week always appreciated! ✨🫶🏼✨

05/09/2025

30 DAYS

An entire month of hospital life as a cancer patient.

I still have a hard time even saying those words… My life changed so drastically in the 4 weeks that make up a month….

One thing is for certain though, is that my faith, hope, peace and love are unwavering. God is here and near. Guiding me. Healing me. Teaching me patience, powerlessness, healthy coping skills, to be loved and helped by so many people who care for me, Asher and my family. I’ve been through so many difficult and trying times before but this one is certainly the cherry on top of the cupcake.🧁🍒

Through it all, I am overwhelmed with gratitude I’ve never experienced before… The outpouring of love, kindness, generosity, prayers, cards, messages, gifts, food, and support I have received thus far is truly incredible and I can’t thank you all enough. I feel as though I don’t deserve all this love but it’s making me see and face myself… Someone who never wanted to be in the spotlight, no attention drawn, not taking up space… I wanted to stay small and hide. I wanted a simple life. I wanted what I wanted, damn it!!

They say is you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. And so, my prayer continues to be “thy will be done.” I don’t know why or how I got leukemia, all I know is my higher power is my strength and my Healer. He is seeing me through and will continue to do wondrous things to my body to rid me of this horrible disease. 🙏🏼

As far as updates go, I finished my last chemo treatment this past Wednesday! 🥳 My numbers are looking good, I’m losing weight, I’m more tired and weak than usual, my hair is starting to shed, I have hot flashes and night sweats but I’m not sick. Like at all. It’s honestly unbelievable! And I can only attest this to the amount of people praying for me…

I am grateful beyond words, wrapped in love and am going to be okay. AND I have less than a week before I can get tf outta here and start my outpatient journey…. God is so good!

XOXO,
Sweets🧁

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” - Phillipians 4:13

05/05/2025

Kara here! I just wanted to let all of Alys supports and followers know, The Howell Foundation and Sentsy are partnering together and planning a benefit Bingo night. All proceeds will go directly to Aly and Asher to support them during their journey. If you have any questions, please reach out to either myself, or the foundation page! I will post the event flyer below, but the registration form and the fee link is posted on our website under the upcoming events tab! We hope to see you there!

04/26/2025

2 weeks + 2 days since my diagnosis & admission..

3 rounds of chemotherapy so far…

Tons of love, calls, prayers, well wishes, cards, check-ins, donations… (so incredibly thankful for you all!)✨ every little thing’s gunna be alright!

One little nugget to keep me going…💖

I’m content in a way to be here and getting the help and care I need from this awful illness... I’m tolerating chemo & blood transfusions pretty well so far with minimal side effects!🙏🏼

Hardest part is not being there in the physical for my little man, the morning snuggles, bedtime stories, our little outings, the mundane/normal things we, as parents tend to take for granted….

Not to mention how challenging it is for me to NEED help when I have been a hyper-independent, self-sufficient and capable woman for as long as I can remember…. Not my will, but thine be done.✝️

But the fact of the matter is, we are human. We are mortal. We get sick. We heal. We give. And we can receive. We love. We ask for help. We can do hard things. Our minds are our most powerful tool.. I’ve had to train my subconscious to think differently, do differently and not let the crushing waves of the world take me under…🌊 God’s grace has brought me to this place of strength, comfort and peace through all the trials I’ve endured thus far and will continue to see me through. Spirit, guide me!💗

Please enjoy this adorable pic of my dude and I riding the wheelchair to the courtyard for our Easter egg hunt! Highlight of my week! 🐣🐇🌷🪺🍭

04/18/2025

Every bit helps Aly! We all want Aly and Asher to live the best life possible in such a difficult time! I created a meal train for Aly and her family as they make multiple trips to and from the hospital and make arrangements for Asher to be cared for when his momma is working on her journey. Please consider donating!

Aly is a beautiful human. She is always worrying about other people. She is a single mom who does it all! Aly was recently diagnosed with a very rare, and very aggressive, form of leukemia. She is currently in the hospital starting chemo and having a ton of tests ran on her all while worrying about....

04/18/2025

How did I get here you ask?

So it was first discovered from a routine checkup last May with my P*P that I have a lump on my thyroid... At the time I was only slightly anemic and they also found with bloodwork my gallbladder was over functioning at 97% so I had it removed in June of 2024. Fast forward 6 months to the end of my marriage, health insurance changes and the process of appts, ultrasounds and the length of waiting to be seen with specialists, etc. I finally got to the point of having my thyroid biopsied on 2/20/25. Results showed the lump as Papillary thyroid cancer and the thyroid was to be totally removed on 4/14/25.

After that biopsy, the next month and a half, my health really started to snowball… I got an infected lymph node in my neck, had walking pneumonia, was increasingly wiped out, pale, had no appetite, gastrointestinal issues, weight loss, random bruising, persistent cough, runny nose w/ bloody mucous, had a severe sciatic flare up & strained my shoulder in the process of moving my house, and tbh I felt like I was dying and could not manage everyday life; yet I still kept pushing through thinking this was all the thyroid cancer, my age or just single mom life…

The morning of 4/9/25, I got my pre-operative labs taken for the scheduled thyroid surgery and within a few hours, my P*P was urgently calling to tell me I was severely anemic (low hemoglobin) and my WBC count was through the roof (75,000 count - should be around 10k), indicating leukemia…. I was supposed to see a hematologist Dr the following day, but after he looked at my file, he called to tell me do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to Shadyside hospital. My parents had just gotten home from Florida 4 hours prior to this and by 5:30pm that day, my Dad was driving me to the ER….

The ER doc is who first diagnosed me with leukemia and said I was getting admitted. I needed blood and platelet transfusions stat and it was going to be awhile before I’d be going anywhere but to my new room on 7 main…..