Michael Strahan's 19-year-old daughter Isabella has revealed she has a rare brain tumor – and had to undergo emergency surgery after doctors discovered a tumor bigger than a golf ball growing in the back of her brain.
The USC freshman appeared on Good Morning America with her father Thursday morning, with the couple telling Robin Roberts about the teen's diagnosis.
Aspiring model Isabella smiled as she told Robin: “I'm feeling good, not bad. “I'm really looking forward to this whole process coming to an end, but you just have to take it one day at a time.”
Michael – who sat next to his daughter as she told her story – and Isabella revealed that her medulloblastoma diagnosis came after she began suffering from “excruciating headaches” during her first year of university, when she was just 18.
“I noticed something was wrong probably since September,” Isabella shared. “Like on October 1st, for example, I definitely have a headache, nausea, [I] couldn't walk straight.'
Michael Strahan's 20-year-old daughter Isabella has openly revealed that she is battling brain cancer
Strahan explained that his daughter began suffering from headaches that became progressively worse, prompting her to seek professional help from doctors
The freshman appeared on Good Morning America with her father Thursday morning, with the two telling Robin Roberts about the boy's diagnosis
At first, Isabella said she mistook her symptoms for dizziness, explaining that she “looked it up on the internet” and “associated it with straight walking.”
Michael confessed that when his daughter told him about her symptoms, he never considered that they might be signs that she was battling cancer, especially because she was only 18 and so “young, strong and “healthy”.
'You know, [she was] “18 years old at the time, you wouldn’t think so,” he said. “Maybe it's dizziness, maybe it's something else.” But she is young, strong, healthy.
“Look at her, she looks great.”
However, on October 25, Isabella's condition worsened significantly and the teenager reported that she began vomiting blood.
“I probably woke up at 1 p.m.,” she remembers. “I was scared to wake up, but I was spitting out blood.”
Isabella joked that she thought, “This is probably not good,” and revealed that she texted her sister to tell her what was going on – and then “notified the whole family.”
At that point, Michael said the family came to the conclusion that Isabella “really needed a thorough evaluation” with a doctor, adding, “Thank God for the doctor… I feel like the doctor saved her life.” saved.”
Isabella says she realized something was seriously wrong when she started vomiting blood – and soon after, she learned she had developed a “rapidly growing, 4cm tumor in the back of her brain.”
After the surgery, Isabella went through a “strenuous month of rehab,” followed by several rounds of radiation before she was finally able to ring the bell to signal the end of her treatment
Isabella said the doctor “did an EKG and other things” before sending her to another facility for an MRI scan.
“So I went for takeout [the MRI] somewhere else and then she called me and said, “You need to go to Cedars-Sinai right now, I'll meet you there,” she recalled – explaining that the doctor didn't give her any more information about her diagnosis at the time.
At the hospital, Isabella was told she had developed a “rapidly growing, 4cm tumor in the back of her brain” which required emergency surgery.
According to Michael, he was told about his daughter's brain tumor before she was, explaining that he “don't remember much” of the moment he found out about her diagnosis, but that he “just remembers finding out.” “how he gets to LA”. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE'.
Isabella was eventually diagnosed with medulloblastoma, which accounts for 20 percent of all childhood brain tumors and typically occurs in about 500 children each year, most commonly those between the ages of five and nine, according to GMA.
On October 27, the day before her 19th birthday, Isabella underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor. Michael explained that doctors wanted to “remove it as quickly as possible.”
“It was a sign of how serious it was when they said, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t risk putting her on a plane to take her to the East Coast or to another doctor.’ We know what it is, and we should get it.” “Get out as quickly as possible,” he recalled his conversation with doctors.
Luckily, doctors told the family that although it was serious, they were “confident” they could treat Isabella cancer.
However, after the operation – which she says she doesn't remember very well – Isabella faced an uphill battle. During this time, she endured a “strenuous month of rehab,” which included learning to walk again.
“As you can imagine, she was heavily medicated,” Michael revealed as he posted several clips of his daughter in the hospital in the days following the procedure.
“But she had conversations, she had a lot of her friends – they came over just to sit with her.”
“And there were times when she was in a lot of pain. She slept a lot.'