Jim Kelly's wife updates fans with touching message as NFL legend moves closer to recovery
Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly is making great strides, literally, just a little over a week after having surgery to remove oral cancer and restructure his jaw.
Kelly’s wife, Jill, posted a video on Facebook on Thursday showing the Hall of Fame quarterback taking his first steps after undergoing 12 hours of surgery on March 28.
“Getting better every day,” said Jill Kelly on the video.
Kelly was being moved to a new room at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
In the video, Kelly is shown being escorted by his family out of the intensive care unit and into a new room.
“Blessing upon blessing. Last day in the ICU. First day in his new room…with a bathroom,” wrote Jill Kelly in the Facebook post.
“Praise God!”
“More and more walking,” she wrote. “And first day TALKING using his trach.
“The power of God and prayer at work. Amazing!”
Kelly revealed in March that he had a recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma in the upper part of his right jaw.
It is the same type of cancer he had surgically removed from his upper left jaw in 2015.
Doctors removed cancer from his upper jaw and lymph nodes in his neck and then reconstructed his upper jaw using part of the fibula from one of Kelly’s legs.
Kelly is expected to be in the hospital for a total of two weeks.
“Mr. Kelly continues to make solid progress in his recovery from extensive surgery for his oral cancer,” said Dr. Mark Urken, head and neck surgeon at Mount Sinai, according to WHEC in Rochester. “He has been moved out of the intensive care unit and made that transition by walking, on his own, from the unit to the inpatient floor where he will continue the next phase of care. He is still several days away from resuming swallowing and taking nutrition by mouth.”
Jill Kelly expressed her gratitude.
“Dr. Urken and his team continue to provide excellent care and support for Jim and our family,” she said via WHEC. “As we navigate through this next phase of healing we will continue to trust God … one day at a time, one prayer at a time. We would appreciate your continued prayer support.”
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