Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella Strahan,19, underwent an unexpected second brain surgery due to a setback while recovering from her first round of chemotherapy for her brain tumor.
“I’ve just been getting a lot of fevers,” she explained in a YouTube video March 5. “If you get a fever over 100.4, you have to go in.”
After three days in the hospital, a blood transfusion and an MRI, Isabella was discharged—only to find herself back in the hospital less than 12 hours later.
Since sharing her medulloblastoma—a malignant brain tumor—diagnosis in October, Isabella has taken fans inside her cancer battle through a series of vlogs, including her first round of chemotherapy.
“I catfished everyone,” she joked. “I got a fever of 102 and had to come back in. So we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong but no one can find out what’s wrong.”
“This is the worst fever I think I’ve had,” Isabella, whose twin is Sophia, continued. “I don’t feel as horrible as I did the first time. I just have a really bad headache so I thought nothing of it and now we’re in the ER.”
According to her vlog, Isabella headed into surgery at 8 a.m. to undergo her second craniotomy, nearly five months after her first.
“I’m actually very nervous. I’m more nervous for this one because it’s not like my brain that they’re messing with, it’s not as deep… but I’m curious as to what recovery would look like,” she said. “I’m not excited…at all. I’m actually kind of nervous.”
“Yay. How lucky am I to get another brain surgery,” she added sarcastically.
Isabella explained that during surgery the doctors cut open the scar in the back of her head to clean and drain fluid out so there are no infections. They also replaced the bone that was initially cut out of her skull. Following the procedure, she showed herself laying in her hospital bed with her entire head wrapped in bandages, admitting that the pain was difficult to handle.
“I’m in so much pain…and this sucks. I was in so much pain earlier, I was like screaming. This is not fun,” she said. “Hopefully this is what was causing all my fevers and why I’ve been in the hospital for a week. So hopefully I will get to go home soon after I heal from this. But I don’t feel my best.”
Michael Strahan has been supportive throughout her ordeal. “In a lot of ways, I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’ve got an amazing daughter,” dad Michael told Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts in January. “I know she’s going through it, but I know that we’re never given more than we can handle.”