Boomers' Little Secret.(Turning Point)(Alzheimer's disease)

Byline: Terry Pratchett; Pratchett is the author of the worldwide best-selling Discworld series of fantasy novels.

We say 60 is the new 40, but we lie--and the truth becomes all too clear when early Alzheimer's hits.

At first I blamed the problems I was experiencing last fall on aging. I will be 60 on my next birthday, which is about a month away. When I talked to my friends, they all reinforced the idea that what was happening was normal. If I said that I always lose my car keys, they said, "Everybody loses their car keys." It's the famous over-50 treasure hunt: put the keys in your left hand, count up to 10, now try to find them. Baby boomers are approaching old age with extreme reluctance. We say 60 is the new 40--but we lie.

I was quite happy to blame the lapses on brain-cell loss due to aging, convincing myself that my brain would soon rewire itself and I'd get up to speed again. I did a very successful U.S. book-signing tour and had breakfast at the White House. It was absolutely great. Then I came back to England and had one particularly bad day. Lots of things happened at once, all demanding my attention, and my brain was beginning to flatline. I knew there was something more than just aging here.

My doctor arranged for me to go to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, which had a specialist unit. I was told I had a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's. It starts at the back of the brain, rather than the front. There is some mild advantage to this. As I understand it, it means I will remain me, coherently me, for longer. So there's a stroke of luck, right?

It's already become clear to me, however, that I've begun to suffer from a lack of visual acuity. I can glance down at the table and not see my mobile phone--though if I look at the table because I know the mobile phone is there, then I will see it. I'd known in a subconscious way for about two years that this was happening because I'd been getting more and more edgy about driving. I was arranging my life so that my wife or my assistant or a taxi took me where I needed to go. Now I've given up my license. If I don't see the mobile phone on the table, I won't see the little girl in the pedestrian crossing.

Within a few days of my diagnosis, I realized that there ...