Terry Pratchett diagnosed w/early onset Alzheimers

[Guest Knorg]

http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html

I'm pretty depressed by it. I just feel really bad for Pterry... Alzheimer's is a pretty bad way to have to face going, because you know your family will be around to see you degenerate, and there's the confusion and other problems. I've had a couple of old family members I knew quite well with dementia and it's not pretty to see, or for them to experience. At least from one perspective he will be able to afford the very best medical care, but, damn.

Poor old bugger.

[Solaris]

My grandfather and his mother are/were diagnosed with it and my grandfather is still living at age 87 but he's to the point where he has to repeat stuff several times over, rarely showers(he will take one every ten days or longer) and he will not drink the normal amounts of water a day he needs to keep his kidneys going and he wets himself and he wears the same clothes day in and day out.

His wife our Grandmother is starting to lose her memories and she's 84. And she will not encourage him to go take a shower or grab his dirty clothes to wash them at night. She's a meek little old woman.

His mother lived till she was 94 and spoke full german till she died in the Northridge earthquake in California. She would accidently drop chocolate chip cookie dough on dog hair covered floors and pick it up and stir it into the rest of the batter. My older brother witnessed her doing that and told us that, never again did we ever eat her cookies again. We pitched them as soon as we got them home. Needless to say it was only five months after we left CA for our home in Missouri did we learn that GPA finally put his mom in a veteran's home.

Hopefully Pratchett has plans for what to do for himself as he will be needing the help he can get.

Beth

[Guest Zyx]

He may die, at some point. But that doesn't negate the fact he's immortal. The best writer I know of.

[sris]

Alzheimer's is a horrible decease. It's good that they found it in its early stage and he gets the proper treatment. At least it'll slow down the deterioration progress and by doing so gives him plenty of time to settle his affairs and, what we all hope, write few more books.

[mangamazoku@hotmail.com]

That's terrible news! Pratchett is one of my all time favorite authors, and after loosing Douglas Adams, I don't know how the satire genera will cope. Alzheimers is probably the worst disease I've ever seen, my Grandmother had it and I would rather have most other diseases than forgetting slowly much of my life and family members. It's always the most brilliant authors that get the terrible diseases.

[PretentiousArtWhore]

That's so sad I love his books so much. He's such a wonderful writer. It's just so unfair. My granddad went through that the last few years of his life, and it hurt so much to see him like that. My thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Pratchett and his family.

[bitBlackmage]

Ah guys don't talk like he's gone! It makes me sad!

Personal note: Alzheimer's is stealing my brother-in-law's grandmother... and people are fighting over her estate and money. It makes me mad.

[Shinju]

There's an experimental treatment for it, I don't know how one would go about signing up for something like that, but I saw it on the news last month. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3603996.ece

If that's true then it looks like none of us will have to worry about getting it in the future.

[Guest Caeru]

This depresses me, especially on top of the fairly recent loss of Robert Jordan.

It sounds to me like he's doing what he can to make the progress of the disease as slow as possible. I hear that one of the best ways to slow it down is to simply keep your mind as active as possible by learning more things, testing yourself, working out math problems and puzzles... etc... I have a grandma with dementia and she's done quite well just spending her time working on puzzles.