He defined that medical doctors knowledgeable the Smiths that she “had a large brain tumor and needed an emergency craniotomy.”
Ten hours of surgical procedure at Stanford Children’s Health was “the most excruciating time of our lives,” he wrote. Neurosurgeons, he stated, eliminated all the tumor and Sloan “in her true form — bounced back from brain surgery like a rock star! She didn’t skip a beat.”
However, pathology decided that she had “a very rare malignant tumor with very few documented cases — without a clear road map for treatment. We are currently awaiting more tests and gathering as many opinions as we can from doctors across the country to decide the best path forward. We wish this were easy, clear-cut and someone gave us a how-to guide. It’s anything but that.”
The 6-year-old “has healed” and is “back to her bubbly self. Singing, dancing, laughing and feeling good.” He added that, “most of all she is an incredibly strong girl that has a ton of fight in her.”
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 on calls, texts, communication and trying to keep loved ones updated. This has been by far the most challenging time we have EVER been through. We know it’s not over and we have a journey ahead of us, but without all of you we could not have gotten this far.”
Alex and Elizabeth had been open about his lengthy restoration and comeback from the leg fracture that ended his NFL profession, sharing the story with ESPN and talking about how his life was jeopardized by an infection. He apologized in his publish for seeming “withdrawn” within the face of this problem.
“We are sorry if we seem withdrawn. It’s because we are … We have been inundated with doctors appointments, scans, labs and trying our best to navigate through this. Most importantly, we’re healing together as a family.”