Sports

Kelly Stafford, former Georgia Bulldogs star Matthew Stafford’s wife, has a brain tumor

By Jason Dill

Updated April 3, 2019 1:57 PM

Kelly Stafford, wife of former UGA standout Matt Stafford, announced on Instagram she’s battling a brain tumor. Screengrab Kelly Stafford's Instagram

Kelly Stafford, wife of Detroit Lions quarterback and former University of Georgia star Matthew Stafford, announced she has a brain tumor via her Instagram account.

In her post, Kelly Stafford said she started experiencing vertigo in January, which led to an emergency room trip that didn’t yield anything suspect.

After more vertigo spells, Kelly said in her post a Detroit Lions team doctor recommended an MRI, which produced the result of a brain tumor, with surgery planned in a couple weeks.

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

“All I heard was brain tumor & that they had to do surgery to take it out,” Kelly Stafford wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Matthew Stafford has been an NFL quarterback with the Lions for the past 10 seasons, and began dating Kelly when the two were undergraduate students at UGA before marrying in 2015, according to the Detroit Free-Press.

They have three children together.

This story was originally published April 3, 2019 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Kelly Stafford, former Georgia Bulldogs star Matthew Stafford’s wife, has a brain tumor."

Jason Dill

Bradenton Herald

941-745-7017

Jason Dill is a sports reporter for the Bradenton Herald. He’s won Florida Press Club awards since joining in 2010. He currently covers restaurant, development and other business stories for the Herald.

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