At 61, Michael J. Fox has spent greater than half of his life dwelling with Parkinson’s illness, which he was recognized with in 1991. That, he notes in a brand new interview with Jane Pauley for CBS Sunday Morning, is one thing of an anomaly.
“There’s not many of us that have had the disease for 30 years,” the Back to the Future star tells Pauley. Fox considers himself fortunate to an extent, given the benefits his life as an actor and activist has offered him. “My life is set up so I can pack Parkinson’s along with me if I have to,” he explains.
“For some families, some people it’s a nightmare, it’s a living hell,” Fox provides. “You have to deal with realities that are beyond most people’s understandings.”
For Fox, these realities embrace not simply slurred speech, tremors and muscle stiffness; the progressive dysfunction has additionally made him susceptible to falls and damaged bones. The Spin City star says having spinal surgical procedure for a benign tumor “messed up my wiring.” Since then, he is damaged each arms, an elbow, his hand and even his face.
“[Falling] is a big killer with Parkinson’s — falling and aspirating food and getting pneumonia,” he says. “All these subtle ways that get you. You don’t die from Parkinson’s, you die with Parkinson’s. I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not gonna be 80.”
Fox — who shares 4 kids together with his spouse of almost 35 years, actress and former Family Ties co-star Tracy Pollan — speaks plainly in regards to the toll the illness has taken.
“It sucks. It sucks having Parkinson’s,” he tells Pauley. And it is getting worse.
“I’m not gonna lie … it’s gettin’ harder. It’s gettin’ tougher. Every day it’s tougher. But that’s the way it is. I mean, you know, who do I see about that?” he says.
But Fox can be counting his blessings, which embrace the household he and Pollan have constructed, his fame (“I’m really good in this!” he instructed his spouse after not too long ago watching Back to the Future for the primary time ins greater than three a long time) and his work fundraising medical breakthroughs which he is assured will assist diagnose and deal with Parkinson’s inside a matter of years.
“It’s a gift that keeps on taking, but it’s a gift,” Fox says of his personal expertise with the illness, which is documented within the new documentary Still. A clip from the movie reveals him falling down on the sidewalk, however the actor retains his humor within the second, telling a bystander that she “knocked me off my feet.”
“I recognize how hard it is for people, and I recognize how hard it is for me, but I have a certain set of skills that allow me to deal with this stuff, and I realize that with gratitude, optimism is sustainable,” he says. “If you can find something to be grateful for, then you find something to look forward to, and you carry on.”
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