TheGirlsLife
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 tumour 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 tumour 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 daily, I think, through the whole thing.”
“I think that, in many ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’ve got an amazing daughter,” said 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 first 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 October…” she mentioned. “That’s when I 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 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-centimetre tumour rapidly growing at the back of her head. “It didn’t feel real,” Michael recollected upon hearing the diagnosis. “I don’t remember much. I 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 fascinating because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”
Her twin sister Sophia stood by her side throughout her journey, assisting her through the entire process. Isabella concluded by expressing that this experience has given her a fresh perspective on life despite the challenges.
“Perspective is a big thing,” she expressed. “I’m grateful. I am grateful to walk, see friends, or do something ’cause it impacts you when you can’t do something.”
Michael concurred, adding, “You learn that you’re probably not as strong as you thought you were when you have to 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 made me change my perspective on many things in my life,” he shared during the interview.
Our thoughts are with Isabella and her family as she recovers.
