Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions star QB Matthew Stafford, is recovering after a lengthy operation for a brain tumor.
Stafford, 29, and the mother of three children, shared a picture on April 21 showing her leaving the hospital in a wheelchair.
She also posted a video on Instagram showing her up and walking around the hospital with the help of her husband and her mother, though she was still attached to an IV.
“This Easter is the beginning of a new life for me. I wanna take a second to thank all of you for all the prayers. They have worked. I know they have,” she wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Stafford revealed on April 3 that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and that she’d soon be undergoing surgery.
She said that in the previous 12 months she began to notice problems such as feeling dizzy after dancing with her children.
“Things that I had been doing my entire life were now, all of a sudden, difficult,” Stafford wrote. In January, she experienced a spell of vertigo. Then, the spells kept coming until one day she became dizzy while she was holding her son, prompting her husband to rush her to the emergency room.
Doctors couldn’t find any problems, but when Stafford kept experiencing spells of vertigo, the Lions team doctor recommended she get an MRI of her brain.
View this post on Instagram
The MRI revealed a brain tumor described by Stafford as acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma.
The tumor is “a noncancerous and usually slow-growing tumor that develops on the main (vestibular) nerve leading from your inner ear to your brain,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Branches of this nerve directly influence your balance and hearing, and pressure from an acoustic neuroma can cause hearing loss, ringing in your ear, and unsteadiness. Acoustic neuroma usually arises from the Schwann cells covering this nerve and grows slowly or not at all,” it added.
“Rarely, it may grow rapidly and become large enough to press against the brain and interfere with vital functions. Treatments for acoustic neuroma include regular monitoring, radiation, and surgical removal,” the clinic continued.
Stafford shared about her experience when she was first hit with the news, noting that she was shocked.
View this post on Instagram
“All I heard was brain tumor & that they had to do surgery to take it out … so that is what we are going to do & we believe we found the best doctor to do it,” she said.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely terrified of brain surgery. I am. I am terrified of them opening my head, I’m terrified of losing my hearing, I’m terrified of losing facial function, I’m terrified of far worse things that could happen and I’m terrified that I won’t take the time I need to recover because the guilt I might feel of being absent from my kids for too long … I am telling y’all this to ask for prayers and support.”
Surgeons planned a six-hour surgery but because they discovered an “abnormal” vein, the surgery time doubled.
“Maybe abnormal for other neurosurgeons, but not the one we chose. He had seen it before and written a paper on it. That’s truly God’s work,” she wrote.
“The prayers for my family, I’m beyond thankful for. A six-hour surgery went to 12 hours and although they were anxious and scared, your prayers got them through.”
