(NewsNation) — Michael Strahan‘s 19-year-old daughter revealed she is battling a malignant brain tumor known as medulloblastoma in an interview with Good Morning America Thursday.
Isabella Strahan received the diagnosis in October. She was battling a rare brain cancer; the tumor was bigger than a golf ball growing at the back of her brain.
Doctors discovered the enlarged mass after she began experiencing headaches and dizziness in the first semester of her freshman year at the University of Southern California, the report said.
One morning, Isabella Strahan said she was dreading waking up, but then threw up blood. That’s when she knew it was time to receive medical attention.
After a full check-up and multiple tests, doctors discovered the “fast-growing 4-centimeter tumor.” The medical professionals informed her father before breaking the news to Isabella Strahan.
“It didn’t feel real,” Michael Strahan said.
Doctors insisted they remove the tumor as fast as they possibly could, so Isabella Strahan underwent an emergency surgery the day before her 19th birthday.
The mass was successfully removed but left her on a long road of recovery. Isabella Strahan had to relearn how to walk, went through rehabilitation and several rounds of radiation, GMA reported.
On Wednesday, Isabella Strahan got to ring the bell, singling the end of her radiation therapy.
“It was great. It was very exciting because it’s been a long 30 sessions, six weeks,” she said.
However, Isabella Strahan still has a long way to go. She will begin chemotherapy at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, North Carolina, in February, the report said.
While this entire experience hasn’t been easy, both Michael and Isabella Strahan said it has given them a “new perspective” on life.
“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 Strahan said in the interview.
