The wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford announced that she will have surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Kelly Stafford took to Instagram to share the news, along with a picture.
“This is a picture of Matthew & I the day we found out. I said I wanted this picture of us, so that the day this was all over, we could look back at this photo & remember,” Stafford wrote.
She said that in the last 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.
The MRI revealed a brain tumor described by Stafford as acoustic neuroma, or vestibular schwannoma.
The tumor’s “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.”
Stafford shared about her experience when she was first hit with the news.
“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.”
Stafford said that she expected to undergo surgery in about two weeks and asked for prayers for her and her family to be calm in the days leading up the surgery and to help the doctors perform the procedure.
“Please pray for Matthew as I know his nerves will be high during this surgery,” she added.
Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft, has not commented publicly on his wife’s tumor and surgery.