Michael Strahan’s daughter has shared her experience after being diagnosed with brain cancer.
In a recent Good Morning America interview with her father, 19-year-old Isabella became emotional while discussing her illness. She revealed that she had to undergo emergency surgery as doctors discovered a tumor larger than a golf ball growing at the back of her brain.
The surgery, occurring a day before her 19th birthday, followed the diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a prevalent malignant tumor found at the base of the skull.
“I’m feeling good. Not too bad,” shared Isabella, who is about to undergo her initial round of chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in North Carolina. “That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over.
“I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap,” she continued. “But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.”
“I literally think that, in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’ve got an amazing daughter,” expressed Michael, 52, in the interview with his fellow GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts. “I know she’s going through it, but I know that we’re never given more than we can handle and that she is going to crush this.”
Isabella then shared details about the symptoms she began experiencing during her freshman year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, just before receiving her official diagnosis.
“I didn’t notice anything was off until probably like October…” she mentioned. “That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
Though initially attributing it to vertigo, by the end of the month, her condition worsened to the point where she was throwing up blood.
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,'” her father recounted. “And thank goodness for the doctor. I feel like this doctor saved her life because she was thorough enough to say, ‘Let’s do the full checkup.'”
Before long, healthcare professionals identified the source of Isabella’s discomfort – a 4-centimeter tumor rapidly growing at the back of her head. “It didn’t feel real,” Michael recollected upon hearing the diagnosis. “I don’t really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get to [Los Angeles] ASAP.”
“It’s still scary because it’s still so much to go through,” he added. “And the hardest thing to get over is to think that she has to go through this herself.”
Following her surgery, Isabella underwent a series of additional tests involving radiation treatment and rehabilitation. “I got to ring the bell yesterday,” said Isabella. “It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”
Throughout her journey, her twin sister Sophia stood by her side, assisting her through the entire process. Isabella concluded by expressing that despite the challenges, this experience has given her a fresh perspective on life.
“Perspective is a big thing,” she expressed. “I’m grateful. I am grateful just to walk or see friends or do something, ’cause when you can’t do something, it really impacts you.”
Michael concurred, adding, “You learn that you’re probably not as strong as you thought you were when you have to really think about the real things, and I realized that I need support from everybody.
“You think, ‘I’m the athlete, the tough guy, you know, I can come and handle, I’m the father in the family. It is not about any of that. It doesn’t matter. And it’s really made me change my perspective on so many things in my life,” he shared during the interview.
Our thoughts are with Isabella and her family as she undergoes the recovery process.
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Source: Good Morning America on YouTube
