Isabella Strahan posted a video of her port placement as she prepares for chemotherapy to further treat her brain cancer diagnosis.
“I’m getting my port placed today, which is a device that goes on your chest for administering chemo, getting your blood drawn, all that fun stuff –– not excited,” Isabella, 19, said in a YouTube video Wednesday.
Michael Strahan’s daughter discussed the surgery while wearing a surgical gown in a hospital bed at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in North Carolina.
Before getting her port –– which is a “thin silicone tube” that allows “chemotherapy medications to be delivered directly into the port,” per the Moffitt Cancer Center –– Isabella had to get an IV in her arm.
“Something I don’t wanna do,” she said of getting the needle injected into her vein. “I would say it’s not my [favorite].”
Isabella continued taking several deep breaths while the nurses struggled to find her vein and eventually had to bring in an ultrasound to locate one.
Throughout the ordeal, she appeared in good spirits and smiled but let out one “Ow!” after the needle found its way in.
“It didn’t hurt that bad,” she said right after.
The video then cut to Isabella in a Gucci puffer coat and blue beanie sitting and playing Gin Rummy with her aunt in a hospital playroom and telling the camera about what else she has to do that day.
“Waiting for a kidney test, busy busy day, got an IV put in for this kidney thing, never fun,” she began. “[I’m] healing from my port surgery –– not fun at all.”
Isabella showed a small white bandage on the lower part of her neck and explained that that was from the port placement.
“And then I have a blood draw, and then I have an EKG, and then I have another blood draw, then I have an MRI, so it’s a busy day, but my neck really hurts and my port is right here so it’s really sore. Not the most fun. I’m distracting myself with cards,” she told the camera.
After taking a quick card break, Isabella was back at it in a hospital room.
The USC student finally ended her day by taking a trip to Waffle House with her aunt, twin sister Sophia and her mom, Jean Muggli.
Her latest video marks the sixth one she’s shared since beginning to record her cancer treatment after announcing her diagnosis on “Good Morning America” last month.
Isabella previously got emotional when she got to ring the bell after her last radiation treatment, in a video shared Jan. 16.
“I’m very excited to finally be done,” she said. “It’s been a long six weeks and I’m very happy to finally heal my head after all of this because the side effects and everything get to you.”
Isabella was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in October and then quickly underwent surgery to remove the tumor.
She has since continued sharing several updates via YouTube –– including one discussing her decision to freeze her eggs due to the fertility effects from chemotherapy.
