Featured Image Credit: ABC
Topics: Grey's Anatomy, Celebrity, Health, US News
Rhianna Benson
Grey's Anatomy star Eric Dane isn't letting his ailing health bring him down.
Speaking to the press this week - two months since announcing he'd been diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) - the actor insisted he wouldn't allow the rare degenerative disease to take hold of a particular aspect of his life.
For those unfamiliar with ALS, the condition is also sometimes known as Lou Gehrig's disease and is a variation of motor neurone disease that primarily affects the strength of muscles inside the body.
In the vast majority of cases, the health condition causes a general weakening of the arms and legs, which can result in the person tripping and dropping things, and gradually worsens over time.
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Such is the case for 52-year-old Dane, who told Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer on Monday (16 Jun) that the entire right side of his body has been most severely affected by his diagnosis.
Fighting tears, he revealed that the condition had left him with 'one functioning arm', adding: "My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working. I feel like maybe a couple more months, and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering."
Elsewhere in the interview, Dane disclosed that his diagnosis had also begun having an effect on his legs, recalling a moment during a recent boat trip with one of his daughters where he'd jumped into the water without realising he 'couldn't swim' anymore.
Despite the physical impact that ALS has already had upon his body, he has no plans to stop working anytime soon.
"I'm going to ride this till the wheels fall off," the Euphoria star told E! News in a new interview, adding that it 'keeps me sharp'.
"It keeps me moving forward, which is super important right now," the TV star continued. "I feel great when I'm at work.
"Of course, there have been some sort of setbacks, but I feel pretty good. My spirit is always pretty buoyant, so at the end of the day, that's all that matters."
However, the most heartbreaking aspect of his condition is the possibility of it affecting the wellbeing of his children.
"I'm angry, because my father was taken from me when I was young," he admitted. "And now there's a very good chance I'm going to be taken from my girls while they're very young.
"At the end of the day, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit, if I can."