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Kelly Stafford, wife of Lions QB, experiences minor setback after brain surgery

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2017, file photo, Kelly Stafford, wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, holds the couple's twins Sawyer, left, and Chandler during pre-game of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, in Detroit. Kelly Stafford plans to have surgery to remove a brain tumor. Stafford shared the details Wednesday, April 3, 2019, on her Instagram account. She says an MRI showed the tumor on cranial nerves after she had vertigo spells within the last year. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski, File)
Kelly Stafford will spend another night in the hospital following a day of pain. (AP Photo)

Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, had a minor setback in her recovery from brain surgery this week.

Stafford announced Wednesday on Instagram she was back in the hospital after struggling to taper off the steroids. She shared three photos, beginning with one from Tuesday while she was still on steroids.

“I thought I could power through the pain and massive headaches that were challenging me throughout the day,” she wrote. “I figured I could pull my strength from one of the strongest people I know, Matthew. I told myself the pain would succumb to me, I wouldn’t succumb to it.”

The mother of three continued to say she struggled to keep down any food or medication and went to the emergency room early Wednesday. The doctors put her back on steroids and pain medication, she said, and will monitor her overnight.

“At first, I felt like I had failed, like I couldn’t handle it,” she wrote. “But what I really failed at was listening to my own body. A lesson I feel like I am going to have to keep reminding myself of.”

When she revealed last month she would need surgery, she listed the things that terrified her from medical complications to what it meant for her family.

“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,” she wrote on Instagram.

Stafford underwent 12 hours of surgery, double the six hours it was scheduled to take, after doctors found an abnormal vein. She made the announcement she had returned home via Instagram on Easter Sunday, sharing that she was “learning my new norm.”

Matthew Stafford was back at the Lions training facility Monday, per a report by ESPN. The Lions told the 11-year veteran to take as much time his family as he needs.

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