Michael Strahan’s daughter, Isabella, has left people heartbroken after opening up about her brain cancer diagnosis.
The 19-year-old and her father appeared on Good Morning America and talked about her condition, revealing she underwent emergency surgery after a tumor bigger than a golf ball was found growing at the back of her brain.
“I’m feeling good. Not too bad. That’s my next step. I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over,” the teen said.
Isabella is set to start her first round of chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center in North Carolina.
“I’m very excited for this whole process to wrap,” she went on. “But you just have to keep living every day, I think, through the whole thing.”
Her father Michael, 52, also said: “I literally think that, in a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world, because I’ve got an amazing daughter.
“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 shared how her symptoms began during her freshman year at the University of Southern California before she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma.
“I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight,” she expressed. Her condition worsened that she even vomited blood.
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,’” Michael said.
“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.’”
Doctors then found a 4cm tumor growing at the back of Isabella’s brain.
“It didn’t feel real,” Michael said when he was told about the condition. “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. And the hardest thing to get over is to think that she has to go through this herself.”
After the emergency surgery, Isabella underwent further tests and rehabilitation.
“I got to ring the bell yesterday,” she expressed. “It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks.”
The teen then said that the experience has given her a new perspective on life.
“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,” she added.
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