SALT LAKE CITY — Michael J. Fox opened up about how he learned to walk again after having spinal cord surgery in 2018, according to USA Today.
The “Back to the Future” star had a surgical procedure on his spinal cord to fix a “recurring problem” unrelated to his Parkinson’s disease, which caused him to fall a lot, according to Fox News.
Fox said he went through an “intense amount” of physical therapy after surgery.
“It was a rough year and I fell a lot," Fox told friend Denis Leary at the Tribeca Film Festival, according to USA Today. "After I had the spinal surgery, I had to learn to walk again. I was really cocky about it and walking with no aids or cane.
"And then I shattered my humerus (upper arm bone), which is no (expletive) joke. Think about it," he joked.
Fox said he worked to make sure there was a silver lining despite the pain.
"I got grim," Fox revealed. "I was the guy who made lemonade out of lemons but I was out of the (expletive) lemonade business. I couldn't do that."
Flashback: Fox opened up about his spinal cord medical issue in an interview with The New York Times Magazine back in March, saying that it was “probably necessary to have surgery.”
- “I was having this recurring problem with my spinal cord. I was told it was benign but if it stayed static I would have diminished feeling in my legs and difficulty moving. Then all of a sudden I started falling — a lot. It was getting ridiculous. I was trying to parse what was the Parkinson’s and what was the spinal thing.
- “But it came to the point where it was probably necessary to have surgery. So I had surgery, and an intense amount of physical therapy after. I did it all, and eventually people asked me to do some acting. Last August I was supposed to go to work. I woke up, walked into the kitchen to get breakfast, misstepped and I went down. … I ended up getting 19 pins and a plate. It was such a blow.”