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Isabella Strahan Details Symptoms She Had Before Reaching Chemotherapy Milestone
View Date:2024-12-24 00:39:37
Isabella Strahan is getting candid about her difficult cancer journey.
Days after Michael Strahan's daughter shared she had completed her last round of chemotherapy, the 19-year-old shared insight into the difficult road—including some of side effects she's struggled with amid her treatment for medulloblastoma—in a vlog documenting her final day.
"I'm just really tired," Isabella said in a video posted to her YouTube channel June 13. "It's hard for my eyes to open. I'm gonna go back to sleep."
But severe exhaustion wasn't the only thing the teen was dealing with, as she also shared her "legs are already feeling weak and it's hard to move around."
Still, that didn't stop Isabella from celebrating the end of her chemo journey.
"I'm so excited because it's the last time, hopefully ever," she said. "Jealous of people who don't have to do this but at least it's almost over and pray for those who have to go through it."
During her video update, the University of Southern California student could also be seen bonding with a fellow patient at the hospital. Proving she's kept her sense of humor intact during her health battle, she signed a football for the patient before referencing a popular TikTok trend, joking that she was passing the ball to "someone who has signed a football," as she handed it to her dad, who played with the New York Giants for 15 years.
And she and the little boy—who was receiving a bone marrow transplant—were reminded by his mother how important it is to continue celebrating "the little stuff."
But luckily for Isabella, she was ready to celebrate the big stuff, saying, "I'm excited, last bag of chemo today. And then I have a little confetti parade and I'll ring the bell."
And in fact, Isabella and her twin sister Sophia Strahan—whose mother is Michael ex-wife Jean Muggli Strahan—did just that in her June 8 TikTok, as the sisters did a celebratory dance with Isabella writing, "Just finished chemo. Did it."
The model has also counted her blessings as instead of six rounds of chemotherapy as originally planned, she ended up only needing four rounds.
"These are happy tears," she said in the video posted April 10. "It's not even considering crying when it's happy tears."
"I can kind of try and have a summer to feel better," she continued. "And I'm so happy cause I thought I'd be done at the end of July. I was supposed to do six rounds in total. And then I really would just have to go straight back to school. I'm so happy."
For more of Isabella's journey following her diagnosis, keep reading.
Isabella Strahan—the daughter of former couple Michael Strahan and Jean Muggli—said she "didn't notice anything was off" about her health until early October 2023, when she started experiencing headaches and nausea.
After throwing up blood one day, she got a full checkup and MRI scan at the urging of her dad. The results showed medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor found in children.
Later that month, she underwent brain surgery to remove the mass.
Isabella went public with her diagnosis in a January 2024 interview with her dad and ABC News' Robin Roberts.
"I literally think that in a lot of ways, I'm the luckiest man in the world because I've got an amazing daughter," Michael noted at the time. "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's twin sister Sophia Strahan also offered her support. "I'm so lucky to have the most amazing sister and best friend in the world," she wrote on Instagram. "The last few months have been so much harder than we could have ever imagined, but it's made me realize just how strong you are"
Following her interview, Isabella shared she had finished her round of radiation therapy.
"I'm very excited to finally be done," she said in a Jan. 16 YouTube video. "It's been a long six weeks and I'm very happy to finally heal my head after all of this because the side effects and everything get to you."
Following radiation therapy, Isabella began undergoing chemotherapy to treat her cancer.
"My whole mouth feels like I got one giant root canal," she shared in a Feb. 16 vlog. "Every single tooth, just ripped out and not even surgically put back in. My jaw hurts, the bottom of my tongue hurts. It hurts when I gulp water."
Still, the teen kept her spirits up, joking in a video posted a week later that her hair is "insufficient now."
"Besides being bald," she said, "it doesn't bring me pain mentally."
Though Isabella was initially scheduled to undergo her second round of chemotherapy in early March, she underwent emergency surgery on her skull—during which doctors drained out extra fluid from her head and replaced a bone they had originally cut out with a titanium plate—which pushed her chemo back by weeks.
"I'm in so much pain," she said in a March 6 vlog. "My face is extremely puffy, and this sucks. I was in so much pain earlier. I was, like, screaming."
Isabella's dad Michael arranged for her favorite singer Bryson Tiller to stop by their New York City home as a pick-me-up amid her treatments.
"You haven't moved this much in months!" Michael joked to his daughter in her vlog of the visit. "You are fangirling right now."
Isabella shared in a March 21 video that she had started her second round of chemotherapy, meaning there was "just four more" rounds to go.
Amid her second chemotherapy round, Isabella said she began experiencing difficulties in walking.
"I literally can't walk without being lightheaded or out of breath," she shared in a March 27 vlog, lamenting that there isn't an "anti-exhaustion medicine" she could take.
The YouTuber had a positive update after finishing her second round of chemotherapy, sharing that she would only have to undergo two more rounds of instead of the originally scheduled four.
"These are happy tears," she said in a video posted April 10. "It's not even considering crying when it's happy tears."
However, Isabella hit a bump in the road in her treatment plan when she had to undergo a third craniotomy. According to the teen, this procedure was unlike anything she had previously experienced.
"Not going to lie, I've been crying a lot," she detailed in an April 12 vlog. "They sunk a needle in three spots and drained fluid, and I was completely awake for this. So, my first completely awake surgery."
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