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Former NFL quarterback Alex Smith praised his daughter’s strength as “sweet, selfless, smart, hilarious, witty and fun-loving” while announcing she is recovering from brain surgery to remove a “very rare malignant tumor.”
Smith wrote on Instagram on Saturday that Sloane, the youngest of his three children with his wife, Elizabeth, and his only daughter, suffered “stroke-like symptoms” on May 10th.
He explained that doctors informed the Smiths that “he had a large brain tumor and needed an emergency craniotomy.”
Ten hours of surgery at Stanford Children’s Health was “the most unbearable moment of our lives,” he wrote. Neurosurgeons, she said, removed the entire tumor and Sloan “in her true form: she recovered from brain surgery like a rock star! She didn’t skip a beat.”
However, the pathology determined that he had “a very rare malignant tumor with very few documented cases, without a clear roadmap for treatment. We are currently awaiting further evidence and gathering as many opinions as we can from doctors across the country to decide the best way to go. We wish it was easy, clear and someone gave us a guide. It’s anything but that. “
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The 6-year-old “has healed” and has “returned to her bubble. Singing, dancing, laughing and feeling good.” in it “.
Smith thanked “our amazing medical team, family, friends, acquaintances and even some strangers who have touched our lives in the last month and a half. We have struggled to keep up with the calls, the messages from text, communication and trying to keep loved ones up to date.This has been by far the hardest time we have ever been in. We know it’s not over and we have a journey ahead of us, but without all of you we wouldn’t have been able to get there. so far ”.
Alex and Elizabeth were open about their long recovery and reappearance from the broken leg that ended their NFL career, sharing the story with ESPN and talking about how their lives were endangered. by infection. He apologized to his message for appearing “withdrawn” in the face of this challenge.
“We’re sorry if we seem retired. It’s because we are … We’ve been inundated with doctor appointments, scans, labs and doing everything we can to navigate that. Most importantly, we’re healing together as a family.”