Over the weekend, former University of Utah and NFL quarterback Alex Smith announced on Instagram that his daughter, Sloane, was diagnosed with brain cancer in May and underwent an emergency craniotomy, a procedure in which part of the skull is removed.
“The 10 hour procedure was the most excruciating time of our lives. A clock has never moved so slowly,” Smith wrote, adding praise for the surgeons at Stanford Children’s Health in California, who performed the operation and noting that they were able to remove 100% of the tumor in Sloane’s brain.
“Sloane — in her true form — bounced back from brain surgery like a rock star! She didn’t skip a beat,” Smith wrote, although he added that the tumor is “a very rare malignant tumor with very few documented cases — without a clear road map for treatment.”
Smith wrote that he and his wife Elizabeth are seeking opinions from doctors around the country regarding treatment options, saying that, “We wish this were easy, clear-cut and someone gave us a how-to guide. It’s anything but that.”
Despite the uncertainty, Smith wrote, “All we know is what is most important — and that’s SLOANE. She has healed from surgery. Back to her bubbly self. Singing, dancing, laughing and feeling good.”
Smith closed by thanking all who have reached out and helped in whatever fashion since the diagnosis last month.
“This has been by far the most challenging time we have EVER been through,” Smith wrote. “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.
“We are sorry if we seem withdrawn.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.”