Michael Strahan’s 19-year-old daughter Isabella is battling a malignant mind tumor generally known as medulloblastoma, the “Good Morning America” co-anchor and his daughter shared Thursday.
“I actually assume that in a variety of methods, I am the luckiest man on the earth as a result of I’ve acquired a tremendous daughter,” Michael Strahan stated in an interview together with his fellow co-anchor, Robin Roberts. “I do know she’s going by it, however I do know that we’re by no means given greater than we are able to deal with and that she goes to crush this.”
Isabella Strahan was identified with medulloblastoma in late October, almost one month after she stated she started experiencing complications whereas starting her freshman yr on the College of Southern California in Los Angeles.
“I did not discover something was off until in all probability like Oct. 1,” she stated, talking with Roberts. “That is after I undoubtedly observed complications, nausea, could not stroll straight.”
Initially, Isabella Strahan stated she thought she had vertigo however a couple of weeks after noticing her signs, she stated she awoke on Oct. 25 and realized her situation had taken a flip for the more serious.
“I awoke, in all probability at like, 1 p.m. I dreaded waking up. However I used to be throwing up blood,” she recounted. “I used to be like, ‘Hm, this in all probability is not good.’ So I texted [my sister], who then notified the entire household.”
Her signs continued, and Michael Strahan stated they inspired Isabella to hunt medical consideration.
“That was once we determined, ‘You’ll want to actually go get an intensive checkup,'” he stated. “And thank goodness for the physician. I really feel like this physician saved her life as a result of she was thorough sufficient to say, ‘Let’s do the total checkup.'”
“She did an [electrocardiogram, or EKG], there for my coronary heart and like, different stuff, however she did not have an MRI machine, so I went to [get an MRI] some other place,” Isabella Strahan stated of the appointment. “After which she calls me and she or he’s like, ‘You’ll want to head to Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center] proper now. I am gonna meet you there.'”
It was there she stated docs found she had developed a fast-growing 4-centimeter tumor, bigger than a golf ball, at the back of her mind.
Michael Strahan stated he discovered the information earlier than Isabella did and “it did not really feel actual.”
“I do not actually keep in mind a lot,” he stated. “I simply keep in mind attempting to determine find out how to get to LA ASAP. And it simply would not really feel actual. It simply did not really feel actual.”
Medulloblastoma is a sort of malignant tumor that accounts for about 20% of all childhood mind tumors, in response to estimates revealed within the Journal of Medical Neuroscience. About 500 kids are identified with medulloblastoma every year.
“However not often somebody who’s 18, 19 years previous,” Michael Strahan stated. “However it’s nonetheless scary as a result of it is nonetheless a lot to undergo. And the toughest factor to recover from is to assume that she has to undergo this herself.”
He continued, “Medical doctors stated, ‘You should not danger attempting to place her on a aircraft to get her to the East Coast or to a different physician. We all know what it’s and we must always get it out as quickly as potential.'”
On Oct. 27, the day earlier than her nineteenth birthday, Isabella Strahan underwent emergency surgical procedure at Cedars-Sinai to take away the mass.
She stated her recollection of her restoration afterward stays foggy, and she or he needed to discover ways to stroll once more with the assistance of her twin sister Sophia.
“She was closely medicated, as you could possibly think about,” Michael Strahan stated. “However she would have conversations. She had a variety of her associates and they’d come over simply to take a seat along with her. And there have been instances when she was in a variety of ache. She was sleeping quite a bit.”
After surgical procedure, Isabella Strahan additionally underwent a month of rehabilitation and several other rounds of radiation remedy.
“So I simply completed radiation remedy, which is proton radiation, and I acquired to ring the bell yesterday,” she stated. “It was nice. It was very thrilling as a result of it has been a protracted 30 classes, six weeks.”
Though she stated her remedy left her feeling fatigue, some nausea and dizziness, amongst different unintended effects, she stated she is “feeling good” general nowadays.
“I am feeling good. Not too dangerous. And I am very excited for this entire course of to wrap. However you simply need to preserve residing day-after-day, I feel, by the entire thing,” she stated.
In February, Isabella Strahan will begin chemotherapy at Duke Youngsters’s Hospital & Well being Heart in Durham, North Carolina.
“That is my subsequent step. I am prepared for it to start out and be sooner or later nearer to being over,” she stated.
Though she has saved this a part of her life personal on-line, she stated she is now able to associate with Duke to doc her journey in a new YouTube sequence, which can assist Duke Youngsters’s.
“It has been like, two months of conserving it quiet, which is certainly troublesome,” she stated. “I do not wanna cover it anymore ‘trigger it is arduous to at all times preserve in. I hope to simply sort of be a voice, and be [someone] who folks, possibly [those who] are going by chemotherapy or radiation can take a look at.”
Each Michael and Isabella Strahan say this expertise has given them a brand new perspective on the essential issues in life.
“You be taught that you just’re in all probability not as sturdy as you thought you had been when it’s important to actually take into consideration the actual issues, and I noticed that I would like help from everyone,” Michael Strahan stated. “You assume that I am the athlete, the powerful man, you realize, I can come and deal with, I am the daddy within the household. It isn’t about any of that. It would not matter. And it is actually made me change my perspective on so many issues in my life.”
“Perspective is a giant factor,” Isabella Strahan added. “I am grateful. I’m grateful simply to stroll or see associates or do one thing, ‘trigger when you possibly can’t do one thing, it like, actually impacts you.”
For now, Isabella Strahan stated she’s targeted on the longer term and finally returning to school when her remedy wraps up.
“I am wanting ahead to getting again to school and shifting again to California and simply beginning my college expertise over. Not over, however simply restarting, being again right into a routine and one thing that is satisfying,” she stated.
Physician says Isabella Strahan’s prognosis is ‘terrific’
Medulloblastoma is the “commonest malignant mind tumor of childhood,” accounting for round 20% of all childhood mind tumors, in response to estimates revealed within the Journal of Medical Neuroscience. Roughly 500 new circumstances of medulloblastoma are identified in kids, usually between the ages of 5 to 9, every year in the US.
Medulloblastoma is split into 4 molecular teams — SHH medulloblastoma, WNT medulloblastoma, Group 3 medulloblastoma and Group 4 medulloblastoma — that docs use to assist decide the correct kind of remedy, in response to the Nationwide Most cancers Institute.
Isabella Strahan was identified with WNT medulloblastoma, which has a 90% survival charge past 5 years, in response to the physician overseeing her care, Dr. David Ashley, a neuro-oncologist and director of Duke College’s Preston Robert Tisch Mind Tumor Heart.
Ashley stated that though Isabella Strahan’s tumor at her age is uncommon — with fewer than 10 circumstances per yr in sufferers her age — she is responding to remedy “fabulously.”
“Sufferers have a 90- plus survival charges past 5 years, and the bulk are utterly cured,” Ashley advised “GMA” of sufferers with WNT medulloblastoma. “So with Isabella, I am very optimistic that her consequence’s going to be terrific, and she or he’s doing actually fabulously.”
Ashley stated the mind surgical procedure Isabella Strahan underwent in October was successful, which additionally improves her prognosis. As well as, Ashley stated the tumor has not unfold.
“The essential factor was that she discovered herself within the palms of clearly a superb surgical staff,” Ashley stated. “And that she was capable of get hold of a whole resection of the tumor with none damage to the again of the mind.”
