Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella Strahan is having a repeat birthday while at home between chemotherapy treatments for her brain tumor.
On May 28, the 19-year-old student and model posted the latest installment of her YouTube series, sharing her health journey following emergency surgery in October 2023 to remove a large medulloblastoma — a type of malignant tumor — in her cerebellum.
In the vlog, Isabella is at her home in New York resting after undergoing her third round of chemotherapy. Together with her friend Dallas and twin sister Sophia, she is filmed baking cakes, hoping to celebrate her 19th birthday again.
Isabella and Sophia’s birthday is October 28. However, Isabella was then hospitalized for an emergency craniotomy.
“We’re celebrating a little birthday because I wasn’t conscious for my 19th birthday,” she said with a laugh. “So six months later we’re doing a little birthday thing.”
Isabella and Sophia sang “Happy Birthday” to each other and blew out the candles on the cupcakes before their dad Michael Strahan came over and gave them a big hug.
Isabella Strahan gives ‘loopy’ chemotherapy update after short-term memory loss: ‘I can’t remember a single thing’
Isabella Strahan with her twin sister Sophia and friend Dallas.
Isabella Strahan/Youtube
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The vlog also included a clip from Isabella’s first brain surgery in October 2023. She opened up about that moment in her first vlog post in January.
In the video, her family and friends decorated her hospital room with balloons, flowers and birthday signs. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her with the cake as she lay unconscious after the operation.
The model admitted she doesn’t remember everything about her first hospitalization, relying on family and friends to fill in the blanks about her experience.
“It’s super sweet to see how much people care and I think that was a big deal [for my recovery]”, she said then.
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Isabella and Sophia Strahan.
Isabella Strahan/Youtube
Isabella has since undergone radiation, three brain surgeries and three rounds of chemotherapy.
In her May 21 vlog, she shared her excitement as she only had one more round of chemotherapy left.
“I just want it to be June already,” she said. “That’s the thing, I’m just waiting for the next time I get chemo and I’m a little scared about how I’ll get back to normal when I’m done. Because I feel like there will always be another treatment or something I have to do. But that’s a later problem.”
“Otherwise I’m fine,” she added.
Since her diagnosis, Isabella has been documenting her health journey on YouTube to benefit Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center.
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Source: HIS Education