The Bella Twins' Mom, Kathy Laurinaitis, Underwent Brain Surgery in June 2020

Kathy Laurinaitis (née Kathy Colace), The Bella Twins' mom, underwent major surgery on June 30, 2020, after the doctors found a blueberry-sized tumor on her brain stem. The operation was successful, and she was discharged from the hospital shortly afterward. So, what happened? How is she doing now? 

In February 2020, Kathy was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a condition referring to a weakness or paralysis affecting one side of the face. Bell's palsy tends to develop in under two days, and in most cases, it improves after nine months. 

However, Kathy's symptoms only worsened over time. On a critical morning in June 2020, she woke up feeling extremely dizzy, with her whole face paralyzed. She had to be taken to the hospital. 

"And then, a couple weeks ago, my mom woke up, her face was more paralyzed, [...] Her whole face went numb, she was extremely dizzy, she couldn't taste," Brie Bella described in a previous episode of ‎The Bellas Podcast, titled "Bellas Baby Shower!"

"They did an MRI and they saw a mass on our mother's brain stem as big as a blueberry," Brie added. 

As the sisters revealed, the doctors hesitated to perform the procedure due to the complications caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Eventually, however, they chose to go ahead. The operation was supposed to last between four to six hours, but it went on for much longer. 

"What they said is that 'she needed surgery as soon as possible' but because of [COVID-19] they were really nervous to do it because now the hospitals are packed again with patients so they were debating if my mom should wait or not until this all comes down but it is in a very dangerous spot," Brie said. 

"On the seventh hour, we hadn't heard from any of the doctors [...] So, you can imagine, we were super nervous. They just really took their time in there and they really cleaned everything out and wanted to double check," Nikki Bella explained during "Bellas Baby Shower!"

Fortunately, the procedure turned out to be successful. 

"She is now on the road to recovery, which will be about six months to a year," Brie revealed. 

On Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, Kathy took it to Instagram to share some adorable snaps capturing her first meet-up with her newborn grandchildren, Matteo Artemovich and Buddy Dessert. 

"It brings back so many memories holding 2 babies at once. Being a grandparent "gg" definitely is the silver lining to quarantine," she captioned the heartwarming post. 

Nikki gave birth to Matteo Artemovich, her first son with Artem Chigvintsev, on July 31, 2020. Buddy Dessert, Brie's second kid with Daniel Bryan, was born on Aug. 1., 2020. 

Let's hope that Kathy will post many more photos with her beautiful grandkids in the years to come.