Kelly Stafford, wife of longtime Lions QB Matthew Stafford, underwent surgery this week to remove a noncancerous tumor inside her skull. She suffered from an acoustic neuroma, a growth on a nerve (or nerves) deep inside the skull.
My friend, Don Israels, had the exact same surgery less than five years ago. I talked to Don on Thursday in between basketball games at our gym. He painted a realistic and optimistic picture for Kelly’s recovery.
Israels lost all hearing in his affected ear. The tumor is a growth on the auditory nerve, and while doctors try to save the hearing function, he told me it’s a much easier procedure to simply snip the nerve to extract the tumor. There is no regrowth potential for the nerve. He said his doctors advised him before the surgery that he had less than a 50 percent chance to keep the hearing in his ear.
He also described the loss of balance and equilibrium, particularly in the immediate recovery from the procedure. There are other nerves in the ear region which help regulate equilibrium, and they are often damaged or completely removed (as was his case) as well. Israels told me it took him a few months before he could quickly turn his head or get up quickly without feeling a little queasy, but his body did eventually adjust. There was a lot of associative vomiting along the way, however.
He spent six days in the hospital, gradually getting his balance back and recovering from the hole cut into his head just behind his right ear. I saw pictures and he gleefully showed me the scar just below his hairline. You wouldn’t immediately notice it if you weren’t looking for it.
One weird thing: they filled the hole in his skull with some of the thick belly fat from below his navel. I asked him if that was normal and Israels advised me that’s what his doctor does every time. It sounds funky but he’s secure enough of it to play fullcourt, full-contact basketball with us at the gym a couple times a week and he’s more than 20 years older than Mrs. Stafford.
Given how young and healthy Stafford has proven to be — remember her pregnancy workout? — she shouldn’t have any issues recovering from the process of undergoing surgery.
Thanks to Don, or D.J. as everyone at MVP in Holland knows him. And best wishes to Kelly, Matthew and the Stafford family from both of us.
