Most recently seen celebrating her final radiation treatment last week, Michael Strahan’s 19-year-old daughter Isabella says she’d almost rather endure that again than what she’s going through now with chemotherapy as she continues her battle against brain cancer.
After celebrating a milestone in her brain cancer treatment journey, Isabella Strahan is now at home and dealing with the challenges of chemotherapy. After her latest round, she told her followers on YouTube that “everything hurts.”
“My head hurts, I feel like I’m having a heart attack, my heart hurts,” the 19-year-old daughter of Good Morning America host Michael Strahan said in the latest video, posted February 16. She even said her eyes hurt when she tries to look to the sides.
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Michael Strahan’s Daughter Isabella in Tears as She Celebrates Last Radiation Treatment By Ringing Bell
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“My whole mouth feels like I got one giant root canal of my whole mouth of every single tooth and just ripped out and not even surgically put back in,” Isabella continued. “My jaw hurts, the bottom of my tongue hurts when I gulp water.”
She said that the chemo has been so bad, she “would prefer radiation … and I did not like radiation.” She wasn’t quite ready to say she’d also prefer brain surgery, which she underwent in October 2023 to have a malignant tumor removed.
The teen admitted that the stress of the unknown and uncertainty and anxiety with chemotherapy is compounding the challenge for her. “This one’s just the longest journey. The hardest,” she explained. “I think it just stresses me out because so much could go wrong, I feel.”
“It’s like, oh no, my heart hurts. That could mean I’m having a heart attack,'” she detailed. “Or like, my eyes strained, what if my eyes stop working? Or like, what if my teeth just rot and fall out. I don’t know.”
Despite the struggles and the uncertainty, though, Isabella is grateful to be home and enjoying being able to do things again. Her “to-do list” includes walking, stretching, hydrating, and even eating.
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In the clip, there are shots of Isabella’s time in the hospital, as well as her with both Michael and her twin sister Sophia by her side, serving as her much-needed support system.
On January 16, Isabella celebrated her final radiation treatment after six weeks by ringing the bell at the New York Proton Center. “So excited to ring that bell… Never thought I’d be ringing the bell,” Isabella said, tears falling down her cheeks.
She started her YouTube vlog to chronicle her cancer recovery journey with proceeds to benefit Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in North Carolina, where she’s begun receiving her chemotherapy treatments.
Isabella first opened up about her diagnosis in an interview on GMA with her father, where she revealed she underwent emergency surgery in October to remove a medulloblastoma — a type of malignant tumor — in her cerebellum.
After the tumor was removed, Isabella was met with all kinds of obstacles, including re-learning how to walk, struggling with headaches, nausea and dizziness.
