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Terry Prattchet
Dec. 13th, 2007 06:17 am(Post copied in its entirety from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nuala, as the entry covered the matter both comprehensively without being too waffle)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7141458.stm
"Pratchett has Alzheimer's disease
The writer said the condition was behind a stroke he suffered
Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease, it has been revealed.
He said in a statement that with forthcoming conventions and the need to inform his publishers it would have been "unfair to withhold the news".
Discworld author Pratchett has sold more than 55 million books worldwide.
The writer, who revealed the news on the website of Discworld artist Paul Kidby, said the condition was behind a stroke he suffered earlier this year."
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And there's the November, 2007 article from the Daily Mail where he discusses the stroke(s):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=490576&in_page_id=1774
(I've only posted snippits.)
----
"...Tests revealed his stroke had been the result of a cerebral thrombosis — a blood clot that causes a blockage in the artery to the brain, killing off brain cells.
"I have dated it to two or three years ago, because that was when my typing started going all over the place," he says.
Terry, 59, who lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, ignored this symptom,attributing his lack of dexterity to ageing...
...But working on one of his manuscripts last August, he started to find it difficult to coordinate his hands and brain.
"I was having a bad day and my typing was going askew. It was as if I was typing wearing gloves."
Terry ... went to see his GP.
"After going through the symptoms, the first thing she asked was whether I'd suffered any memory loss and I wisecracked back: 'Not that I can recall.'"...
...The right side of the brain controls hand/eye coordination, so it seems likely the stroke affected this side of his brain.
In some ways, he's had a lucky escape.
Strokes are the third most common cause of death in the UK and a leading cause of severe adult disability.
Thankfully for Terry, who has sold 55 million books and just published Making Money —the 36th novel in the Discworld series — his ability to write, controlled by the left side of the brain, was unaffected.
"My speech is no less clear than before. I still have the lisp I was born with," he says.
It is likely that Terry suffered a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), a mini-stroke which can last a few minutes to a few hours and from which the sufferer recovers within 24 hours although there will, of course, be side-effects as brain cells are killed off... "
nuala, as the entry covered the matter both comprehensively without being too waffle)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7141458.stm
"Pratchett has Alzheimer's disease
The writer said the condition was behind a stroke he suffered
Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease, it has been revealed.
He said in a statement that with forthcoming conventions and the need to inform his publishers it would have been "unfair to withhold the news".
Discworld author Pratchett has sold more than 55 million books worldwide.
The writer, who revealed the news on the website of Discworld artist Paul Kidby, said the condition was behind a stroke he suffered earlier this year."
--------------
And there's the November, 2007 article from the Daily Mail where he discusses the stroke(s):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=490576&in_page_id=1774
(I've only posted snippits.)
----
"...Tests revealed his stroke had been the result of a cerebral thrombosis — a blood clot that causes a blockage in the artery to the brain, killing off brain cells.
"I have dated it to two or three years ago, because that was when my typing started going all over the place," he says.
Terry, 59, who lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, ignored this symptom,attributing his lack of dexterity to ageing...
...But working on one of his manuscripts last August, he started to find it difficult to coordinate his hands and brain.
"I was having a bad day and my typing was going askew. It was as if I was typing wearing gloves."
Terry ... went to see his GP.
"After going through the symptoms, the first thing she asked was whether I'd suffered any memory loss and I wisecracked back: 'Not that I can recall.'"...
...The right side of the brain controls hand/eye coordination, so it seems likely the stroke affected this side of his brain.
In some ways, he's had a lucky escape.
Strokes are the third most common cause of death in the UK and a leading cause of severe adult disability.
Thankfully for Terry, who has sold 55 million books and just published Making Money —the 36th novel in the Discworld series — his ability to write, controlled by the left side of the brain, was unaffected.
"My speech is no less clear than before. I still have the lisp I was born with," he says.
It is likely that Terry suffered a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), a mini-stroke which can last a few minutes to a few hours and from which the sufferer recovers within 24 hours although there will, of course, be side-effects as brain cells are killed off... "
