Michael J. Fox Reveals New Health Issue While Battling Parkinson's – Variety



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Michael J. Fox opened up a new spinal cord problem in the face of Parkinson's disease, in a new interview with New York Times Magazine.

"I was told it was benign but if it stayed static," he said. "Then all of a sudden I started falling – a lot. It was getting ridiculous. I was trying to parse what was Parkinson's and what was the spinal thing. "

The mysterious health problem became so serious that the "Back to the Future" star had to get spinal surgery.

"So I had surgery, and an intense amount of physical therapy after. I did it, and eventually people asked me to do some acting, "he said.

However, Fox was back in the hospital in August after falling in his kitchen, resulting in 19 pins and a plate in his arm. He said he used the accident as a reminder to keep his optimism about his health in check.

"I do not know what to do. In my case, what was it that made me skip down the hallway to the kitchen thinking I was fine when I'd been in a wheelchair six months earlier? It's because I had some optimistic expectations of myself, and I'd had results to bear out expectations, but I'd had failures too. And I had not given the failures equal weight, "he said.

Diagnosed with Parkinson 's in 1991, Fox kept the health issue a secret from the public until 1998. He became an advocate for finding a cure for disease, and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000.

"I was so scared. I was so unfamiliar with Parkinson's. Someone is saying your life is going to be completely changed. Yeah? When? I'm fine now but back then I was in the 'I'm fine now.' I was in the 'I'm going to be bad,' "he said. "And it was not until '94 that I started getting it. That's when I started to accept the disease – and acceptance does not mean resignation. It means understanding and dealing straightforwardly. "

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