Bella Twins Say Their Mom Asked If She Should Postpone Brain Surgery Until After Babies Were Born

Kathy Colace Laurinaitis was previously diagnosed with Bell's Palsy

Brie and Nikki Bella with mom. Photo: Nikki Bella

Before Nikki and Brie Bella's mom, Kathy Colace Laurinaitis, underwent brain surgery in June, she asked her twins if she should postpone the operation.

At the time, Nikki and Brie were both pregnant and weeks away from their respective due dates, and Laurinaitis wanted to make sure she'd have the opportunity to hold her grandkids.

The trio will appear on Wednesday's episode of Dr. Oz and open up about Laurinaitis' thought process after being told she had to have surgery.

"Well, it was crazy because the doctors, they did ask my mom, they were like, 'Do you want to hold your future grandkids before you have the surgery?' because they don't know the outcome of the surgery, and my mom called and asked us, 'Should I wait?' " Brie, 37, says.

"My mom's surgery was three weeks before we were going to have the babies, and my mom is like, 'Should I wait so I can make sure I hold my grandkids?' " she continues. "And Nicole and I are like, 'No, Mom. This is your health, this is your life, this is an emergency. You need to do this, and we believe that you're going to be able to hold your grandkids.' "

Brie adds that her mom asking for her and her sister's advice on the timing of the surgery "made everything so real and so scary and the seriousness of all of it."

Laurinaitis' surgery over the summer was successful, and Brie said on a previous episode of The Bellas Podcast that her recovery process will "be about six months to a year."

"It's been so nice just to like see our mom be our mom again," Brie added on the podcast, describing her mom as "very beat up" from the operation.

"We're just so happy that she has light at the end of the tunnel," Brie said.

During the Dr. Oz episode, Laurinaitis says that she was overcome with emotion when she received her Bell's Palsy diagnosis. The condition causes temporary weakness or paralysis in the face. Doctors found a mass on Laurinaitis' brain stem that required surgery, PEOPLE previously reported.

"There were so many emotions," Laurinaitis says. "I think the first one was like this can't be happening, someone wake me up. I think it was like disbelief and then it was fear, and then worrying."

But ultimately, Laurinaitis chose to look on the bright side of the situation.

"At the end of the day, Dr. Oz, it was like, I'm alive, and I'm going to fight this fight," she says. "I have no choice and with the help of so many prayers from family and friends and my children and then my husband, I couldn't have asked for a better support system, and then the surgical team was just off the charts."

Both Nikki and Brie delivered baby boys in August.