Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly is scheduled to begin a rigorous regimen of chemotherapy and radiation designed to treat the recurrence of cancer.
In a gut-wrenching interview with TheMMQB.com's Peter King, Kelly says he had been dealing with "massive headaches and migraines" due to, as King writes, the "countless microscopic" tumors in his head.
In a statement last week, Dr. Peter Costantino called Kelly's condition "very treatable and potentially curable."
"If he's saying it, I hope so," Kelly told King. "I just know there's a lot of work to do, to shrink the cancer. I just pray it works. If you hear I'm about to have surgery, then you know it's working. That's the goal. But it won't be an easy operation."
The former Buffalo Bills quarterback has been surrounded by his family at a New York-area hospital. The man famous for his grit on the football field said the pain has been overwhelming.
"I guarantee the normal person wouldn't have been able to take it," he said. "Some days, I don't know how I did. I complained about my headaches for months, and for a while I thought it was just part of the healing process from such a serious surgery. But obviously it was more than that. I'd look up to the Lord and say, 'I give. Uncle. You got me.'"
For Kelly, it's just another obstacle to tackle.
"It's been such a roller coaster," he said to King. "So many things. The Super Bowl losses, the fabulous career, my son born sick, making the Hall of Fame, my son dying, two plates and 10 screws in my back after major surgery, one plate and six screws in my neck after another surgery, a double hernia, the cancer, surgery on my jaw, the cancer coming back, now what I'm facing. But ...
"When you're going through pain, you're what?" he stopped to ask his daughter, Erin.
"Kelly tough," she responded.
Kelly tough, indeed.
UPDATE: The Buffalo News reports that a fever has postponed Kelly's chemotherapy until next week. Kelly's brother, Dan, said Jim is now "locked and loaded" for treatments to begin Monday.
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