OT: Matt Stafford's wife has a brain tumor
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2019/04/03/kelly-stafford-wife-detroit-lions-qb-needs-surgery-brain-tumor/3351821002/
Kelly Stafford, wife of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, posted on social media Wednesday morning she needs surgery to remove a brain tumor.
"A few days later we were hit with the results, I had a tumor sitting on some of my cranial nerves," Kelly wrote on Instagram. "The medical term they used was an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma."
According to the Mayo Clinic, an acoustic neuroma is noncancerous and usually slow-growing tumor that develops on the main (vestibular) nerve leading from your inner ear to your brain. Branches of this nerve directly influence your balance and hearing, and pressure from an acoustic neuroma can cause hearing loss, ringing in your ear and unsteadiness."
Non-cancerous, but apparently has been affecting her balance and causing vertigo over the past year. Here's to a safe surgery and speedy recovery.
Doh, forgot to enable the link in the OP.
Fuck cancer anyway.
Prayers for successful surgery, quick and complete recovery.
I’ve had 3 non-cancerous brain tumors removed. They’ll probably go in through her nose and she’ll go home the following day.
Its your brain, so it’s no joke, but neurosurgeons are truly wizards.
glad you are here to blog about it. that's a heck of a post.
Wow, that's awful. Noncancerous is good, I suppose, but having one's skull opened and their brain operated on can never be a fun experience, I imagine. Best of luck to her and Matt...
Noncancerous is really, really good.
As a husband whose spouse also has a benign brain tumor and will eventually need surgery, I can assure you one experiences a wide range of emotions on a daily basis. But I have full faith and confidence in my wife's neurosurgeon, and I trust the Staffords feel similarly regarding Kelly's physicians.
That being said, it never hurts to pray.
And I guess I can temper my professional criticisms of Matt for at least one season.
And I guess I can temper my professional criticisms of Matt for at least one season.
Matt certainly isn't a perfect QB but on any competent team, with a competent staff, and competent ownership, we'd be talking about Stafford in the same breath as Brees, Manning, or Brady.
...we'd be talking about Stafford in the same breath as Brees, Manning, or Brady.
Day drinking is badass.
Okay, I wouldn't go quite that far...but with the coaching and personnel pieces they've added this off-season, they are legitimately only a better than average draft away from winning their division
Dearest Vlad:
I'm sure you can manipulate whatever has to be manipulated to make it so. Then again, if the Lions did win we will always wonder if it was fake news.
Wearily,
Robbie
P.S. Think good thoughts for Kelly Stafford. She is the mother of three young children who need her around.
They are parents to several children I believe, I hope she recovers fully.
And if they were childless because barren an unable to procreate???
less children for you to drag away, or is this a trick question?
Excellent point. The sad ones are way easier to entice into the sewer...
Fewer.
sound of XM dialing phone...
operator: 9-1-1, how can i help you?
XM: ma'am, could you send the grammar police out, right away?
operator: what seems to be the problem?
XM: well there's this killer clown guy, and he's kind of scary, and a mad hatter and he's getting heated up about the grammar out here and i don't know what to do.
operator: did you say 'mad' hatter? what's he mad about?
XM: its not that kind of 'mad', its a different kind of mad, you know, the funny kind, the les miles kind, do you get it?
operator: no, sir, i don't. where are you located now?
XM; i'm at the corner of mgoblog and stafford street, just send the grammar police, please, quick like.
My sister had a benign brain tumor removed at UM several years ago. She’s been fine ever since and we feel very fortunate to live so close to a world class health system. Here’s hoping for the same to anyone who goes through this.
speaking as a doctor, and as a thankful patient who has also had a similar tumor resected, it is reassuring that the pathology is benign. Often, this tumor can be removed without any recurrence (which is our hope). The bigger issue is the location of the tumor and any surrounding structures that may make a resection more difficult or higher risk. While surgical techniques have improved drastically and risk is low, there is always a risk of severe complications from the surgery when you're operating near such delicate structures.
Good thing they're wealthy. That surgery would probably put the average person into chapter 7.
The average person would be putting that tumor on layaway.
And this actually makes me wonder about NFL players' health care plans? Would this fall under the Lions' coverage plan? I'm guessing not, if they're opting for Mayo for treatment.
I am assuming the wife of Stafford falls under his insurance plan, like most work insurances can include a spouse. Also, I didn't read it was happening at Mayo. I thought the article just quoted a Mayo definition of the tumor.
I thought it was mentioned in another article I had read on her story. But I could've been mistaken.
I’m guessing that most regular people would not have an MRI done as quickly as someone rich like the Staffords.
Depends on his insurance. I think NFL has a good insurance program.
Hating on Stafford is all fun and games until serious life comes roaring in. Get well, Kelly! I'll be anticipating you giving Lions fans hell on Twitter this season!
My wife has the very same acoustic neuroma, and after doing a thorough literature review, we found that traditional surgery was not the answer due to the high risk of side effects (facial paralysis, etc). We chose Gamma Knife, which blasts the tumor with focused radiation to stop its growth (it's rare to ever save the cranial nerve). Pleased that her tumor has not grown, but our adventure with several doctors was tenuous, as we had one surgeon (whose name was on the building!) tell us that there was no alternative than traditional surgery. He obviously does not perform the Gamma Knife procedure. I hope the Staffords investigate Gamma Knife or other radiosurgeries because if we had listened to our first doctor, we may not have such a happy ending.
Horrible news, but maybe I'm old, old fashioned, or whatever, but why does everything have to be shared on social media?
God question.
The team put out a statement asking people to respect their privacy, which seems unnecessary, considering she posted the news on Instagram.
That's a fair question. I would imagine that the Staffords figured the news was likely to be leaked eventually, so they announced it to get ahead of the story. Better that than have some third-party leak inaccurate details, and then have to spend time cleaning up the mistakes.
It would be better if a family's private medical could be kept private, but unfortunately, that's not our world.
This kind of news is always so awful and so scary. Hoping for the best for her and the Stafford family.
I wish them all the best. My sister had that exact tumor. She flew to LA for the surgery as the specialist there did hundreds of these surgeries as opposed to regional Dr's that don't see them that often.
She was given the option before surgery to have an implant like deaf people get to restore hearing if they were not able to save her auditory nerve. She chose against it and is now deaf in one ear. She also claims to be more clumsy now, but she was never light on her feet.
My sister was diagnosed with a hereditary condition called NF2 and made an annual visit to NIH in DC for several years to study the condition and scan for recurrances. Fortunately, none ever came up. But, most importantly, she did not pass it to my niece and nephew. She told me if she had, the guilt would have been overwhelming.
From the little information shared on here, they are using the same terminology as they did with my sister.
Excellent call for your sister to travel for that surgery and something that's a useful lesson to everyone in need of specialty care (issued with the caveat that I fully recognize that traveling across the country is not always an opportunity for everyone). Go to a place where the condition is routine. If you go to a place and everyone is like, "holy crap, come check out this patient, we NEVER see this!" and there is a parade of medical students being brought to meet you, go somewhere else. Find the place you can get to that sees the most of condition X, and go there.
Sincerely,
A oncologist who sees patients after they've had procedures or treatment at small practices/hospitals
Ps. As a nerdy aside, there's a book about pediatric cardiac surgeons called "Walk on Water" that details this phenomenon quite nicely (and Dr. Bove at Mott gets mentioned prominently). It talks about pediatric heart surgeries and the gist is that there are so few surgeries that only a few people get the requisite experience to be badasses and "walk on water". Those people, in turn, get referred more patients because they're awesome which allows them to become even more awesome than everyone else. In the end, there is a tiny handful of awesome docs and really everyone else should refer to them.
Good luck Kelly and Matt ?
I dreaded reading the comments in here because there are some truly awful people that post on this board. But I'm happy to see unanimously good thoughts towards her. Especially considering how much vitriol Matt takes here every season.
Good luck to you, Kelly - come through with flying colors (Honolulu blue and silver, obviously)!
Today I learned......
That there is a pornographic actress named Kelly Stafford. She has some interesting bukkake videos......
The Yahoo headline read as though Matt Stafford had a brain tumor. I went on here to see what the commentary was to realize it was his wife. My first thought was "Whew! The Lion's don't need a new QB."
I am a horrible person.
I hope Kelly Stafford has a full recovery and will pray for her. I'm assuming she'll be getting the best medical treatment money can buy.
Very sad news. Prayers for the Staffords as they head out on what will probably be a long journey.
Wish the Stafford family the best
yikes. that's a delicate part of the body. wishing her well...