Matthew Stafford’s Wife Kelly Stafford Back in Hospital Days After Brain Surgery

Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, is back in the hospital just a few days after she was released following a 12-hour surgery to remove a brain tumor.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Kelly detailed her struggles with pain since the procedure and how it resulted in her unexpected return to the hospital.

“I thought I could do it,” the caption began. “They told me tapering off the steroids was going to be very difficult. The first picture was yesterday when i was on what I thought was my last day of steroids.”

The 29-year-old shared three photos in the post; the first showed her lying on the couch; the second showed her and Matthew, 31, walking up the stairs smiling; the third depicted Kelly now in a hospital bed.

“I thought I could power through the pain and massive headaches that were challenging me throughout the day,” her post continued. “I figured i could pull my strength from one of the strongest people I know, matthew. I told myself the pain would succumb to me, I wouldn’t succumb to it.”

“I was so wrong,” she continued, explaining how she wound up back in the hospital. “The pain got so far ahead of me I couldn’t keep anything down, including meds. I ended up in the ER very early this morning, back on steroids and pain medication.”

“At first, I felt like I had failed, like I couldn’t handle it,” the caption added. “But what I really failed at was listening to my own body. A lesson I feel like I am going to have to keep reminding myself of.”

She concluded, “Thank you again for everything. I just wanted to give a little update. They will keep me here overnight just to monitor in hopes of going home in the morning.”

Kelly underwent tumor removal surgery earlier this week after revealing in early April that doctors found a benign tumor, known as an acoustic neuroma, resting on her cranial nerves. Leading up to her diagnosis, she experienced extreme bouts of vertigo.

On Easter Sunday, Kelly shared a series of photos that showed her in a wheelchair and surrounded by family after the operation, which was scheduled for six hours but stretched to 12 when the surgeon discovered an “abnormal” vein in her skull.

On Monday, she detailed post-surgery issues. “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. “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.”