Alzheimer's Care When a Loved One with Alzheimer's Doesn't Recognize You (Part 1)

Our reader Pat, an Alzheimer's caregiver, is dealing with a problem that is more common than I would like to admit.Not being recognized by a loved one is both gut wrenching and heartbreaking. I know because I have talked about this in person with hundreds of caregivers.Pat wrote,"When my husband doesn't recognize me, he keeps asking where is Pat his wife. If I tell him I'm his wife Pat it irritates him and he says no I'm not his wife. I can't seem to satisfy him no matter what I say. Hope u have a good answer for me. He keeps asking where is his wife?"I asked our top expertDr. Rita Jablonski to respond to Pat's question. She does that here in Part 1. I'll tackle this issue in a different way in Part 2.Topic -Why Do Alzheimer's Patients Have Lucid Moments?While there is never a perfect solution to an individual problem, I always reminded myself while caring for Dotty that -"where there's a will there's a way." Sometimes you have to try multiple solutions before you discover what works best.By Rita JablonskiAlzheimer's Reading RoomDear Pat (and the many other caregivers dealing with this problem):First, I ’m sorry.Not being recognized by someone whom you love hurts, but you already know that. I have some suggestions and I sincerely hope one of them will work.We all have mental “pictures” of what the people we know look like. We also constantly update our mental pictures of people in our lives while retaining the old ones —a “deck” of mental pictures filed in ou...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer's not recognizing spouse alzheimers care care of dementia patients dementia care my mom doesn't recognize me Source Type: blogs