Michael J. Fox Health News: Actor Recovering After Spinal Surgery
"Back to the Future" star Michael J. Fox is already on his way to recovery.
The 56-year-old actor's spokesperson Leslie Sloane revealed that he underwent a spinal surgery procedure that is not related to his Parkinson's disease.
"He is recovering, feeling great, and looking forward to getting back on the golf course this summer," the spokesperson told E! News.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Details about the cause of the spinal surgery remain under wraps, but Fox recently canceled a scheduled appearance at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in Canada on April 26 to 29.
The organizers of the expo announced the actor's cancellation through Twitter earlier this month. The post stated: "Whoa! This is heavy. Michael J Fox is not able to be with us at #CalgaryExpo. We received the following message from his publicist to share with you all – 'Due to unforeseen circumstances in his schedule Michael J. Fox is not available to attend."'
Fox had been battling the degenerative Parkinson's disease since he was 29 years old when he was diagnosed in 1991. This caused him to have uncontrollable tremors all over his body.
He opted to keep his medical condition private at first but opened up about it in 1998.
While he continued to suffer from his incurable disease, the actor managed to take on several acting roles such as Louis Canning on "The Good Wife," Mike Henry in "The Michael J. Fox Show," and most recently as special prosecutor Ethan West in ABC's political drama "Designated Survivor."
Fox talked about how he deals with Parkinson's disease in an interview with AARP The Magazine in March 2017, claiming that he sometimes laughs at himself whenever he experiences the effects of his medical condition.
"Just the other morning I come into the kitchen," he told the publication that was cited by People. "I pour a cup — a little trouble there. Then I put both hands around the cup. She's watching. 'Can I get that for you, dear?' 'Nah, I got it!' Then I begin this trek across the kitchen. It starts off bad. Only gets worse. Hot java's sloshing onto my hands, onto the floor," the actor went on to say.
But according to Fox, the fact that someone else is watching him while he has to go through all of the struggles and thinking that he cannot even get the coffee makes it hilarious.
He is also an avid advocate of Parkinson's disease research to find a cure for his disease through The Michael J. Fox Foundation.
In a guesting with Good Morning America early this month to promote his appearance on "Designated Survivor," he revealed what he normally says to other people who were also diagnosed with the debilitating disease that attacks the central nervous system. "We need to find a way to identify the disease before symptoms ever exist. People say 'Is there a cure?' There's not a cure, we have a lot of questions to answer before then, but we're answering them," the actor said in the show, as reported by E! News.
