Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, revealed on Wednesday that she has been diagnosed with a brain tumor that required surgery. Kelly wrote on Instagram that in January she began experiencing dizziness and vertigo and that it kept happening, so she and Matthew went to the emergency room to get tests done. Those tests revealed that her bloodwork and vitals were fine.
After several more spells of vertigo, the Lions' team doctor recommended that Kelly get an MRI, which eventually revealed an acoustic neuroma, or a benign tumor, resting on her cranial nerves. Surgery has been recommended, and will be performed soon.
Kelly Stafford's full caption describing the experience which she and Matthew have gone through over the past several months reads as follows:
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.
Within the last year, I began to notice things that I thought was just me getting older. I would show my girls how to do a front roll or twirl in ballet class and immediately feel dizzy & off balance...
Things that I had been doing my entire life were now, all of a sudden, difficult.
The beginning of Jan was when I experienced my first spell of vertigo..It kept happening & then it happened while I was holding Hunter. Matthew took me straight to the ER. They checked vitals & bloodwork, all were fine.
Several vertigo spells later, Matthew's team doctor recommended we go get an MRI of my brain to rule everything major out. A few days later we were hit with the results.
I had a tumor sitting on some of my cranial nerves. The medical term they used was an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma. 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. 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.
Things to pray for: -calmness in these next 2 weeks as I know anxiety will run high in myself & my whole family leading up to the day of surgery. -that God be in the room with the surgeons & give them all the guidance, steadiness, & confidence they need. -my safety during and after surgery. -please pray for matthew as I know his nerves will be high during this surgery. I couldn't imagine being out in that waiting room.
Thank u. Thank u for reading this novel. thank u for all your support and most importantly, thank u for your prayers.
The Staffords began dating as undergraduates at the University of Georgia, and they have three children together. This is obviously an incredibly scary situation for all involved, and we can only be thankful that doctors found the cause of the problem and hope that the surgery is successful and that Kelly Stafford makes a full recovery and proceeds to live a long and healthy life.
