Lauren Holiday Shared Her First Selfie After Brain Tumor Surgery

Lauren Holiday is done hiding from the camera. The two-time Olympic gold medal-winning soccer player and former U.S. women's soccer midfielder posted a Mother's Day selfie on Instagram yesterday—her first since undergoing surgery for a benign brain tumor this past October.

"I have been hiding myself from a camera for the past 7 months," she writes in the caption. "I didn't want anyone to see my paralyzed face, my eye that is now crossed, the bald spots from radiation & my half shaved head. Granted you can't see any of those things in this picture, just a patch…it's a huge step."

Holiday, 29, was diagnosed with a benign tumor called a meningioma in late June after experiencing severe headaches. An MRI showed the tumor was located on the right side of her brain, near her eye socket. At the time, she was six months pregnant.

Meningioma is the most common type of tumor that forms in the head, according to the Mayo Clinic. A meningioma doesn't form in the brain itself, but in the meninges, the membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord. The majority of meningiomas are benign but can be severely disabling if they continue to grow and are left untreated, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Before her surgery, Holiday's husband, Jrue Holiday, an NBA basketball player, told The Times-Picayune that his wife was already experiencing numbness on the right side of her face due to the tumor pressing on a nerve.

Related: The Common Brain Tumor Symptom You Shouldn't Ignore

After her diagnosis, the soccer star waited two months to give birth to a healthy daughter, Jrue Tyler Holiday, in late September, and just one month later she underwent a successful surgery to remove the tumor from her brain, ABC News reports. To treat a growing meningioma, doctors will perform surgery to try and remove as much of the tumor as possible. It's difficult work, though, as a meningioma can form near delicate parts of the brain and spinal cord. Radiation treatment is sometimes needed after surgery to shrink any parts of the tumor that couldn't be removed during surgery.

Holiday's road to recovery hasn't been easy—and she's shown extreme resilience in the face of it all. In February, she shared a little bit about her difficult journey on Instagram. "I have never quite known suffering like I experienced the last 6 months," she wrote on Instagram. "I can remember countless nights repeating, 'There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.' " What's helped her get through: her faith and her family, including daughter, Jrue. "Every time I see this smile I'm reminded that joy does come in the morning," she wrote back in February.

In her latest Mother's Day post, Holiday made sure to thank all the women in her life who've shown her what it means to be strong: "Today reminded me just how incredibly strong women are. The resilience of our bodies, the power of our minds, the ability to put other humans fully before ourselves, our compassionate hearts but most of all our undying love for our families, our friends and our precious babies," she writes. "I am so proud to be a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a wife and most of all a mother."

Read Lauren Holiday's full post below.

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