Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, is on the mend after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Kelly, who revealed in an April 3 Instagram post that a benign tumor known as an acoustic neuroma was sitting on her cranial nerves, posted an update on her Instagram page Sunday.
"This Easter is the beginning of a new life for me," she wrote. "I wanna take a second to thank all of you for all the prayers. They have worked. I know they have."
Kelly included a video of her walking in the hospital halls after surgery, writing that she believes she had the perfect doctor to perform the procedure.
"When they opened me up, I had an abnormal vein.. maybe abnormal for other neurosurgeons, but not the one We chose," she explained. "He had seen it before and written a paper on it. That’s truly God’s work."
Kelly added that she is grateful for the outcome of the surgery — which lasted twice as long as expected — as she prepares to embark on a new chapter in her life.
"The prayers for my family, I’m beyond thankful for," she wrote. "A six hour surgery went to 12 hours and although they were anxious and scared, your prayers got them through. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now I am home and learning my new norm. It’ll take some time, but I really just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all your support, thoughts and prayers. It means more than y’all will ever know."
The Staffords, who met while students at the University of Georgia, have been married since 2015 and share three kids: 2-year-old twins Chandler and Sawyer, and daughter Hunter, who was born last August.
In her earlier post on April 3, Kelly said she was "completely terrified of brain surgery" and feared she'd rush herself through recovery for the sake of her children.
"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."
Two days after going public with the news of the tumor, Kelly, in a follow-up post, expressed her gratitude to everyone who reached out with warm thoughts.
"There are honestly no words for what I have felt in the past few days," she wrote. "I am beyond grateful and just want to thank everyone who has reached out with their support and especially with prayers for me and my family In these past few days."