Heroics is a family tradition for Kelly and Matthew Stafford

Surgery

She was scheduled for surgery, a six to twelve-hour operation that intended to remove the non-cancerous tumor from its location against the cranial nerves cluster. Now, this was not about getting tonsils removed. Nor was it about removing an appendix. Brain surgery is at an entirely different level. Even success had risks of permanent hearing loss or loss of facial expressions. But doing nothing was much worse. So the decision was to operate was made.

But when the surgeon began to operate, he discovered an anomalous artery that is normally not there. So the team had to repurpose the operation to address two concerns. Thankfully, Kelly’s surgical team had seen this once before and had written a paper about it.

At the time, Kelly and Matthew were proud parents of three beautiful daughters: Twin daughters Chandler and Sawyer Stafford, and Hunter Hope Stafford. A mother of three, and yet fighting to recovery from major surgery.  Her recovery was brutally difficult. The first attempt to wean Kelly off her steroids and pain medications did not take, and she was so agonizing that she was rushed to the Emergency Room and returned to her regimen of steroids (anti-inflammatory) and pain medications.

All the while, Matthew Stafford, who had been at his wife’s side throughout the ordeal, had to push it to the back of his mind as he joined his teammates at the Detroit Lions training camp. One can only imagine the mental anguish of the Lions’ quarterback, torn into three parts. One with his team and training camp, one with his daughters and concern for them