By the end of this year, many doctors are hopeful that hospital systems will be able to provide a new Alzheimer's drug.The drug is called Leqembi, and it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month. It's important to note that this drug is not a cure, but it's meant to keep people in the mild stage of the disease longer.Joe Pane says his brother's life once consisted of a lot of baseball. "Played at Creighton (University) and coached for 20 plus years, won a state championship," Pane said.Although he was in his 70s, Pane's brother was still active and giving baseball lessons. But three years ago, the family noticed a change."He would student teach too and wasn't, you know, staying in the classrooms. And things. And that's when kind of realized there was something going on," Pane said.His brother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. A disease that's different for everyone. In this case, it started with memory loss.For Sharon Stephens' dad, the changes started with driving. "I can remember a time that he left a sporting event and couldn't find his car," Stephens said. Stephens has been the executive director of the Alzheimer's Association Nebraska Chapter for seven years. Although she says Alzheimer's is a disease with no survivors, just like Pane, she's prayed for some answers. "The options really have been nothing or zero," Stephens said. In the past, she says there has been progress made in other areas of the disease but not in treatment — until now. One doctor from the Omaha, Nebraska, area spoke about Leqembi and how it could help families."This is the first drug that targets the underlying changes in the brain, the pathology, and we think will slow down the progression of the disease," Nebraska Medicine neurologist Dr. Dan Murman said. Murman said like any other drug, there are side effects. It's given as an IV infusion every two weeks. But for families who wish time could stand still, this news is incredible. "You just want time with the people while they still, you know, can enjoy and remember what's going on," Pane said. Stephens had a similar view."If I could get back a year, if I could get back two years with my dad... that's what everyone wants," Stephens said. An early diagnosis has never been more important. It's a requirement for Leqembi. "This medicine is only for people in the very mildest stages of Alzheimer's disease. So we call it mild cognitive impairment, but they would be a stage where people have memory loss, but they're still quite independent in their activities," Murman said. Stephens says there are around 36,000 people in Nebraska living with the disease, and she knows the drug won't help her dad but hopes it helps some of them. "There has to be this glimmer. There has to be a first step. And that's what this drug is. And this drug will start and just kind of open the pipeline for us for the next drug and the next drug," Stephens said. Pane mirrors Stephens' comments, and he's hoping researchers can hit it out of the park with this one. "We can only hope so. I know that they are working hard, and there's a lot of, well, lot of great doctors working hard on this all over the world," Pane said.You can find a list of symptoms and resources on the Alzheimer's Association website here.