Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella just shared a heartbreaking update in her battle with brain cancer. In a May 23 video on her YouTube channel, the 19-year-old student told her 40,000 subscribers that the new medication she is taking as part of her treatment is causing memory loss.
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“I don’t remember Tuesday because I’m given this drug to protect my hearing, and just because I have a reaction to it, they give me Ativan,” she said.
Strahan’s video cuts to another clip showing her in the hospital getting ready to eat a sandwich she didn’t remember ordering.
According to the Mayo Clinic, Ativan is an oral medication frequently used to treat anxiety. Drowsiness, confusion, and loss of memory are among the drug’s common side effects.
Back in January, GMA’s Michael Strahan and his daughter sat down with ABC’s Robin Roberts to share the devastating news that doctors had diagnosed Isabella with medulloblastoma, a cancerous tumor that develops at the base of the skull.
“This is something that is so personal that I didn’t know if it would be something that she would want to share,” Michael Strahan told Roberts at the time. “But her idea was, ‘I want to share it, and I want to help other people,’ and that goes into the spirit of who she’s always been.”
Since her diagnosis, Isabella has been sharing the ups and downs of her journey – from her treatments and surgeries to her happy surprises, including a special visit from singer Bryson Tiller.
In this week’s video, Strahan shared that she has only one more round of chemotherapy before she can hopefully return to her normal routine.
“Literally I just want it to be June already,” she said. “I just wait around for the next time I get chemo, and I’m kind of scared like, once I’m done, how am I gonna go back to normal life?”
As Isabella bravely battles her illness, her dad has partnered with the UFL to raise money to support brain cancer research at Duke University. In a May 23 Instagram post, Strahan announced the sale of limited edition t-shirts.
“Let’s #GoGrayinMay to conquer and cure brain tumors – once and for all. T-shirts are available at shop.theufl.com,” he captioned the post.
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