The daughter of “Good Morning America” (GMA) co-anchor Michael Strahan Isabella revealed she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
In an interview with ABC News, Isabella Strahan, 19, accompanied by her father, opened up about her two-month private battle with medulloblastoma and revealed what led to her diagnosis in late October shortly after starting college.
“I didn’t notice anything was off till probably September, like Oct. 1,” she told “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts. “That’s when I definitely noticed headaches, nausea, couldn’t walk straight.”
After doing her research, she said she attributed her symptoms to vertigo because she “associated that with walking straight.”
On Oct. 25, her condition worsened. She explained that she woke up in the afternoon and was “throwing up blood.” This led her to text her twin sister, Sophia, expressing her concern. That’s when her sister informed the whole family.
“That was when we decided, ‘You need to really go get a thorough checkup,'” the former New York Giants football player shared. “And thank goodness for the doctor.”
He added, “I feel like this doctor saved her life because she was thorough enough to say, ‘Let’s do the full checkup.'”
Additionally, Isabella Strahan shared what happened during her appointment.
“She did an [electrocardiogram, or EKG], there for my heart and like, other stuff, but she didn’t have an MRI machine, so I went to [get a MRI] somewhere else. And then she calls me and she’s like, ‘You need to head to Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center] right now. I’m gonna meet you there,'” she recalled.
According to ABC News, doctors informed her that she “had developed a fast-growing 4-centimeter tumor, larger than a golf ball, in the back of her brain.”
“Medulloblastoma is the most common type of cancerous brain tumor in children,” per Mayo Clinic.
According to John Hopkins Medicine, the pediatric brain tumor commonly affects children between the ages of 5 to 9.
Speaking on his daughter’s health crisis, Michael Strahan said he didn’t “really remember much. I just remember trying to figure out how to get to LA ASAP. And it just doesn’t feel real.”
On Oct. 27, the day before her 19th birthday, Isabella Strahan underwent emergency surgery at Cedar-Sinai in Los Angeles to remove the mass.
“She was heavily medicated, as you could imagine,” Michael Strahan said of his daughter’s recovery. “But she would have conversations.”
He continued, “She had a lot of her friends and they would come over just to sit with her. And there were times when she was in a lot of pain. She was sleeping a lot.”
During the interview, Isabella Strahan revealed she recently finished six weeks of radiation therapy which caused her to experience hair loss, nausea, fatigue, and dizziness.
Speaking about her next steps, she shared that she will begin chemotherapy treatment at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina.
“I’m ready for it to start and be one day closer to being over,” she said.
