Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and nearly 12 million provide their unpaid care. The cost of caring for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is estimated to total $384 billion in 2025, increasing to nearly $1 trillion (in today’s dollars) by mid-century. For more information, view the 2025 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report at alz.org/facts.

A day in the life of an Alzheimer's doyenne

I am fragile and like
everyone else
I have been dying
since the day I was born.

I see clearly now
that I have limited time
to do my best work
to share it while I can.

I battle the fear
of loss daily.
Some days
I even win.

But every day
I get up is a chance
to triumph as long
as I try.

I am blessed
with doctors
on the literal bleeding
edge of medicine.

It is my blood they are
using to help me
and many others
behind blue hospital curtains.

My doctor says
there are over
one hundred of us
in this protocol alone.

A rarified subgroup of
strangers I will never meet
but whose lives intertwine
medically with mine.

I will trudge to the hospital
every other week for
the hopefully long
rest of my life.

I take my infusions
sip my coffee
light and sweet
for an hour and a half.

There is a strange duality
of privacy and lack of it
simultaneously
in the hospital.

I hear others I don’t meet
having their various
procedures behind blue
curtains in the chilly room.

They offer us blankets
which I decline
because I run hot
traditionally.

I take off my winter
shoes and socks,
recline in the
huge faux leather chair.

I hear that some people
sleep through it all.
I am not one of them.
I will nap at home

after I write my notes
and have a cup of hot
honey sweetened
cream dashed tea.