On December 23, 2018, AJ's journey began with an emergency trip to the hospital and then an emergency transfer to Arkansas Children's Hospital.  Three days later, AJ's family learned he had leukemia.  AJ's stay at the hospital kept getting extended with most of his time there in the ICU.  Initially, the doctors couldn't reduce his fever.  Then his lip started swelling, turned black, and ended up having to be removed.  The next complication was GI related which involved another surgery and many setbacks.  Finally, on March 23rd, after a three month stay, AJ was discharged from ACH.  

AJ still had plenty of appointments at the hospital for chemo and plastic surgery.  On September 23rd, 2019, AJ celebrated being in complete remission.  Fast forward to April, 2020, and an amazing plastic surgery team reconstructed AJ's lip.

AJ loves big trucks, doing tik tok dance videos, and anything Marvel!