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Alex Smith’s daughter Sloane is recovering from a brain tumor

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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 was recovering from brain surgery to remove a “very rare malignant tumour”.

Smith wrote on Instagram Saturday that Sloane, the youngest of his three children with his wife, Elizabeth, and their only daughter, was struck down with “stroke-like symptoms” on May 10.

He explained that doctors informed the Smiths that she “had a large brain tumor and needed an emergency craniotomy.”

Waiting 10 hours for surgery at Stanford Children’s Health was “the most excruciating moment of our lives,” he wrote. Neurosurgeons, he said, removed the entire tumor and Sloan “in his true form – bounced back from brain surgery like a rock star! She didn’t skip a beat.

However, pathology determined that she had “a very rare malignancy with very few documented cases – with no clear roadmap for treatment. We are currently awaiting more testing and gathering as many opinions as possible from doctors across the country to decide the best way forward. We wish it was easy, clear and someone gave us a handy guide. It’s anything but. »

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The 6-year-old ‘has healed’ and is ‘back to her bubbly self. Singing, dancing, laughing and feeling great. “.

Smith thanked “our amazing medical team, family, friends, acquaintances and even some strangers who have touched our lives over the past month and a half. We struggled to keep up with calls, texts, communication and trying to keep our loved ones informed. It was by far the hardest 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 couldn’t have made it this far.

Alex and Elizabeth Smith have been open about his long recovery and return from the NFL career-changing leg fracture, sharing the story with ESPN and how his life was put at risk by an infection. He apologized in his post for appearing “withdrawn” from the challenge.

“We were inundated with doctor appointments, scans, labs and we did our best to navigate through it. Most importantly, we heal together as a family,” he wrote.