Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had to stop everything earlier this year to take care of his wife, Kelly after it was revealed she had a brain tumor. Now she is opening up about how she had to learn how to move again in an interview on the NBC Detroit affiliate WDIV.
“I’m relearning how to move again,” she said according to TODAY. “I push myself. I try. It’s really because I have a great support when I come home.”
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Kelly said she noticed something was wrong when she experienced multiple cases of vertigo in January.
“The room just kind of started spinning on me,” she said. “I was holding our newborn at that point, and I kind of just like almost threw her to Matthew because I felt myself going down.”
Both Matthew and Kelly then went to the doctor to see if it was vertigo. She had an MRI and it was revealed she had a benign brain tumor known as an acoustic neuroma. And even though it’s benign, the tumor can cause hearing loss and facial paralysis. Kelly had surgery on Apr. 17 and it lasted for 12 hours.
At first, Kelly had a hard time moving, saying the procedure “wiped out the entire balance system on my right side.” But as the days, weeks and months went by Kelly went from not being able to move to back at the gym boxing.
“Honestly don’t know where to start. This is him, the man God chose to remove my brain tumor. After my diagnosis, Matthew and I visited doctors all over the US. He made it a super easy decision after we met Dr. Thompson [at] the U of M hospital. Dr. Thompson not only had done about 2000 acoustic neuroma cases & had published outstanding results when attempting to preserve facial & hearing function w/ the surgery, but….when I spoke w/ him, he reminded me of my dad. He truly cared & was empathetic, which meant so much to me,” Kelly wrote in an Instagram post back in May.
As Kelly continues to recover, Matthew continues to make plays for the Lions, after four weeks of the NFL season, the Lions have a 2-1-1 record and Stafford has thrown for 1,122 yards, nine touchdowns, two interceptions and he has a 102.6 passer rating.
