Wife of Lions Quarterback, Dallas-Native Matthew Stafford, Has Brain Tumor

Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, plans to have surgery to remove a noncancerous brain tumor.

Kelly Stafford shared the details Wednesday on her Instagram account. She said an MRI showed the tumor on cranial nerves after she had vertigo spells within the last year.

Matthew Stafford, who is from North Texas and grew up in Highland Park, met Kelly while the pair attended college at Georgia where she was a cheerleader and he was the star of the football team. In 2009, Stafford was the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and has spent his entire career with the Lions.

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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

The couple now has three children, all daughters.

In her post on Instagram, Kelley Stafford said she started noticing balancing issues while doing tumbles and twirls with her children -- things she did before with ease.

In her post, she described the tumor as an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma. According to the National Institute of Health, the tumor is a noncancerous, usually slow-growing tumor that develops from the balance and hearing nerves supplying the inner ear. The tumor grows from an overproduction of Schwann cells and as it grows can affect hearing and balance. Untreated, the tumor could grow to impact facial sensation, nerves and could press on nearby brain structures becoming life threatening.