NFL legend Jim Kelly can't speak after surgery, shares touching Easter message
Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly spent his Easter Sunday recovering in the intensive care unit at a New York City hospital after undergoing 12 hours of surgery last Wednesday to remove oral cancer.
While he couldn’t speak, Kelly did have a message for fans, friends and supporters.
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Kelly’s daughter, Erin Kelly-Bean, posted a message on her Instagram page that her dad wrote on a white board on Easter.
“Happy Easter to everyone,” the Hall of Fame quarterback wrote. “Thanks for the prayers. Love you all.”
Kelly’s wife, Jill, also provided an update on husband on social media.
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“Better than yesterday, but a lot more healing needed. The doctors told us what to expect, but nothing could have prepared us. It wasn’t only the cancerous tumor and lymph nodes that had to be removed,” Jill Kelly posted on Instagram.
“Jim’s entire upper jaw has been reconstructed (using his left femur bone, etc.) due to radiation damage from his previous cancer treatment. He can’t talk… But he can write…THANK GOD for wipe boards,” she added
“Watching Jim go through this is far more difficult than I can describe. But, like wipe board messages, we Praise God for everything … Every breath. Every tear. Every struggle. Every small step of victory.
“It’s all in His hands. Thank you for praying!”
Kelly announced in March that he had a recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma in upper part of his right jaw. It was similar to the type of cancer he had surgically removed from his upper left jaw in 2015, according to the Buffalo News.
“We successfully removed Mr. Kelly’s cancer from his upper jaw and lymph nodes from his neck,” Dr. Mark Urken, the operating surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, told the Buffalo News last week. “We then reconstructed his upper jaw. Mr. Kelly is resting comfortably post-operatively.”
Kelly is expected to be in the hospital with a feeding tube for about two weeks, the newspaper reported.
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“I feel very confident that we’re going to be able to get not only around this tumor very readily but also get Jim back on track here with, hopefully, a better quality of life moving forward,” Urken told the Buffalo News before last week’s surgery.
Prayers to Kelly and his family for a speedy recovery.
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