Michael J. Fox opened up about serious health issues that he has suffered due to his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis — including nearly losing his hand.
In a Town and Country interview with Fox, 62, published on Thursday, November 2, he recalled a moment when he realized he couldn’t always find the good in everything. In 2018, Fox went through a spinal tumor surgery. After finally being able to walk again, the actor tripped and fell in his kitchen, breaking his upper arm.
“I said, ‘F–k lemonade. I’m out of the lemonade business.’ That was nothing,” he shared with the outlet, adding that since that incident he has broken his other arm and shoulder, smashed his orbital bone and cheek and broken his hand. “My hand got infected and then I almost lost it. It was a tsunami of misfortune.”
Although Fox — who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 — battles with his health everyday, he revealed that the thing that scares him most is “anything that would put his family in jeopardy.” The Family Ties alum shares son Sam, 34, twins Aquinnah and Schyler, both 28, and daughter Esme, 22, with wife Tracy Pollan.
“One day I’ll run out of gas,” Fox explained. “One day I’ll just say, ‘It’s not going to happen. I’m not going out today.’ If that comes, I’ll allow myself that. I’m 62 years old. Certainly, if I were to pass away tomorrow, it would be premature, but it wouldn’t be unheard of.”
Fox has previously been candid about how his Parkinson’s disease keeps getting tougher for him to deal with.
“My life is set up so I can pack Parkinson’s along with me if I have to,” he told CBS Sunday Mornings in an April interview. “Yeah, it’s banging on the door. Yeah, I mean, I’m not gonna lie. It’s gettin’ hard, it’s gettin’ harder. It’s gettin’ tougher. Every day it’s tougher. But that’s the way it is.”
He continued to explain how he’s able to cope with his diagnosis.
“You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s,” the Back to the Future star said at the time. “So, I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it. … I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not gonna be 80.”
In May, Fox released his documentary Still, which detailed his acting career and further allowed him to open up about battling with Parkinson’s for over 30 years.
“I decided to create this documentary for a couple reasons, first bringing awareness to this disease has been very important to me for years and I wanted to continue that work through film,” Fox exclusively told Us Weekly in March. “The second is for my fans. They, along with my family, [have] been the reason I have been able to go on. As I say, my fans gave me life and I wanted to be open about mine.”
