Michael Strahan’s Daughter Isabella Says She Is Back In The Hospital For Second Craniotomy Amid Cancer Battle: “This Is Not Fun”

Isabella Strahan is opening up about her journey since starting chemotherapy for medulloblastoma.

Isabella, who publicly broke the news of her diagnosis alongside her father Michael Strahan on Good Morning America in January, posted her 12th YouTube vlog on Wednesday, chronicling her “second craniotomy,” per People.

The National Cancer Institute defines a craniotomy as an”operation in which a small hole is made in the skull or a piece of bone from the skull is removed to show part of the brain.”

“Hey, Vlog, I’m in so much pain,” Isabella shared following the operation. “And my head is wrapped like this. And my face is extremely puffy. And this sucks. I was in so much pain earlier, I was like screaming. This is not fun.”

She explained that “they went back and they cleaned out [her] scar” for infections, and “replaced [the] bone that they cut out of [her] skull originally with a titanium plate.”

“So now I’m part titanium,” she quipped. “But hopefully this is what we believe is causing all my fevers, and why I’ve been in the hospital for a week. So hopefully I will get to go home after I heal from this.”

Reiterating that she’s “just in a lot of pain,” she noted that she “was way more drugged up for [her] first surgery because it was more invasive.”

“It’s not fun getting your head cut open… but I’m just super glad I can still walk and talk and they didn’t touch my brain,” she said, “because doing that again would be… it would be really really rough, and I don’t think I could do it. I could do it, but it would be rough, again.”

This surgery led to her next round of chemo being “pushed back a week,” which she said she “think[s] is needed.”

“It would be horrible to do chemo, and I wouldn’t be able to heal from this because my white blood cells would be low again,” she elaborated.

With some help from the hospital staff and the support of visitors, she slowly went for a walk, telling viewers, “I feel like I’ve just lost every progress of me walking since like October 31.” However, she noted that she “walk[ed] four laps the other day” prior to her surgery, and eventually concluded, “This isn’t the worst it’s been!”

This update followed another YouTube vlog she posted on Tuesday (March 5), in which Isabella revealed at the end that she would have surgery “last minute” and doctors would “stick a needle in [her] head and drain it,” per Entertainment Weekly. She had been hospitalized due to her fever, noting, “if you get a fever over 100.4, you have to come in.”

She had documented her “first transfusion” and another MRI, and after leaving the hospital “after three [or] four days,” she ended up returning “less than 12 hours later” after experiencing a fever of 102.

“So we’re trying to find out what’s wrong, but no one can find out what’s wrong,” she shared. “I don’t know. This is like the worst fever I think I’ve had.”

Clarifying that she didn’t “feel as horrible as [she] did the first time,” she highlighted that she had “a really bad headache,” but initially “thought nothing of it.”

Her father praised Isabella for being so vocal and transparent through her vlogs in a Feb. 21 update on GMA, noting that “she bravely documented her journey on YouTube in hopes of helping other people with the same diagnosis feel supported and to know that they are not alone.”

He had highlighted that “the last three days ha[d] been a little rough” due to Isabella having “a fever that kind of comes and goes.”

Watch Isabella’s vlogs above.