Michael J. Fox Heartbreaking Health Update: ‘It got worse’

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In light of his ongoing Parkinson’s battle, Michael J. Fox has updated his followers on his health.

The beloved 61-year-old actor recently made news and moved fans to tears after reconnecting with Christopher Lloyd, who played him in Back to the Future.

37 years after the release of the first Back to the Future film, the two stars were spotted cuddling on stage during a rare appearance together at New York Comic Con earlier this month.

Despite the touching incident, Fox fans expressed worry for the actor’s health and well-being on Twitter threads and comment sections.

Fox was only 29 years old when he received the initial diagnosis of the neurological illness. In 2000, the adored actor established the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is “dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today” after going public with his battle with the illness in 1998.

Fox has now disclosed that he has had a difficult year due to bone breaks and recuperation in an interview with PEOPLE.

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The Teen Wolf star had previously detailed trying times in his life when he fought with his health in his 2019 autobiography, including needing spinal-cord surgery to remove a tumour in 2018 and subsequently having to recuperate from a broken arm.

According to Fox, “It got worse” at this point.

Fox spoke candidly to the journal about the previous year, saying: “I fractured my cheek, then my hand, then my shoulder, had a replacement shoulder put in, and shattered my [right] arm, then I broke my elbow.

“I’m 61 years old, and I’m feeling it a little bit more.”

According to PEOPLE, Fox’s friends and family are adamant that his new struggles do not necessarily indicate that his Parkinson’s condition is advancing more quickly.

However, the always positive Fox acknowledges that his most recent ailments have affected his perspective on life, saying: “I was never really a cranky guy, but I got very cranky and short with people.

“I try to nip it in the bud. I always think of these aides who work with me. And I often say to them, ‘Whatever I say, just imagine I said please at the beginning and thank you at the end. Just take a second and absorb that I might have said that if I was more myself, but I didn’t, so I apologize.'”

Fox said in a 2017 interview with AARP Magazine that his diagnosis meant he was “sailing a ship on stormy seas on the brightest of days”.

He added: “People often think of Parkinson’s as a visual thing, but the visuals of it are nothing. On any given day, my hands could be barely shaking or they could be… It’s what you can’t see — the lack of an inner gyroscope, of a sense of balance, of peripheral perception.” 

Credit: Sipa US / Alamy

Fox also admitted that it is doubtful he will survive long enough to see the development of a treatment for the illness, saying: “I’m really blunt with people about cures. When they ask me if I will be relieved of Parkinson’s in my lifetime, I say, ‘I’m 60 years old, and science is hard. So, no.;”

Nevertheless, the actor insisted that he is “genuinely a happy guy” who doesn’t “have a morbid thought in [his] head”.

“I don’t fear death. At all,” Fox said.

Featured image credit: Erik Pendzich / Alamy