Wife of Detroit Lions QB Is Getting ‘Used to Her New Normal’ Following Brain Surgery to Remove Tumor

On April 3, Kelly Stafford — a popular mom blogger and wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford — revealed she was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Instagram.

As Dearly previously reported, the wife and mom of three shared a picture of her and Matt smiling on the day she was given the diagnosis.

View this post on Instagram

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.

A post shared by Kelly Stafford (@kbstafford89) on Apr 3, 2019 at 7:27am PDT

Kelly wrote that she began noticing something was wrong last year. She first felt a difference while playing with her daughters.

She explained that every time she would instruct how to do a front roll or how to twirl in ballet class, Kelly would “immediately feel dizzy and off balance.”

The mom first contributed the multiple spells of vertigo to “old age.”

She later learned that the cause of her dizzy spells was actually due to a tumor called acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma.

On Easter Sunday, Kelly updated her Instagram followers on how she was doing after undergoing open brain surgery to remove the tumor.

She shared photos of her and family, as well as a video of her walking again following the surgery.

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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. When they opened me up, I had an abnormal vein.. 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. 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. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now I am home and learning my new norm. It’ll take some time, but I really just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all your support, thoughts and prayers. It means more than y’all will ever know. #cupscrew

A post shared by Kelly Stafford (@kbstafford89) on Apr 21, 2019 at 4:35pm PDT

She wrote:

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.
When they opened me up, I had an abnormal vein.. 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. The prayers for my family, I’m beyond thankful for.

Kelly continued:

A six hour surgery went to 12 hours and although they were anxious and scared, your prayers got them through. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now I am home and learning my new norm. It’ll take some time, but I really just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all your support, thoughts and prayers. It means more than y’all will ever know.

Multiple big names in sports commented on Kelly’s post to offer her their well-wishes as she continues to recover.

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I surprised Matthew with some gifts instead of a pregnancy this year.. #hewasrelieved Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

A post shared by Kelly Stafford (@kbstafford89) on Dec 25, 2018 at 8:28am PST

Detriot Lions’ Christian Jones wrote:

This is awesome!!! So happy everything went well.

And sports reporters Sarah Walsh, Chrissa Thompson, and Adam Schefter followed suit, respectively:

Thanks for the update as so many of us are rooting for you and thinking of you! All the positive vibes headed your way…..

Sending ALL the love and prayers your way

Everyone is thinking of you and pulling for you!

While Luke Bryant and Brittany Aldean added:

Praying for y’all

Amen, Kelly!! Prayers for a full, amazing recovery!! We are thinking of you!

Kelly later wrote that she hasn’t seen her kids in a week and that has been one of the hardest parts for her.

“Sitting in this dark room in pain, but trying to hold off on meds because I want to see my kids. I want to be coherent and in the moment,” she wrote on Instagram. “Tomorrow, it’ll have been a whole week that I haven’t seen them and my heart aches. Balancing, in general, is incredibly hard right now.. balancing kids and brain surgery is nearly impossible.”