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Recognizes him as dad and husband in photos however? Disease? Episodes of not recognizing dad seems to come when anxious issues occur or unhappy with dad. Is in narcotic pain patches. Takes anti anxiety Med. Tecgnizes absolutely everyone else. Total recall of current and past events. When we try and tell her the person is her husband she tells us it's s charade. Gets mad. Any thoughts

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Something is going on with your Mom's memory. First thing, have her checked for an urinary tract inflections..... such inflections can cause all types of havoc in an elderly person. Once cleared up, most elders are back to normal [whatever is their normal state was prior to the infection].
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Definitely discuss this with the MD. Yes, it could be the pain medication, or an underlying condition affecting the brain. If she has gone through chemo, it does affect memory.
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You don't mention her age, but I would mention it to the doctor. Sometimes people can cover well about memory issues for a period of time. I have worked with people who are in the early phases of dementia who can hold it together long enough for an assessment or a visit that is a couple hours, but as soon as as they don't have an audience they have lapses. Keep an eye on it and talk with her doctor now. I have experienced clients with considerable decline very quickly. You might notices other area of difficulty if you pay attention.
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Because you say mom says he's a "charade", it makes me think it might be Capgras delusion. It's where a person thinks a loved one has been replaced with an imposter. Here's a link to an article...hope it helps a little.
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Has she had trumatic brain injury or possibly "hardening" of cerebral veins suppling oxygen to brain.
Do take her to Dr.to check this out.This is actually a symptom.
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I believe that, by definition, someone who does not recognize their spouse has dementia or something related to trauma. I agree with Beckytodd1's statement.
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This is symtom of a disorder. I can not Dx . But, The brain does not like to Not identify things and tries to be logical.
The brain itself will fill in the blanks.
If there is no memory it will make on from past experience. especially when injury from lack of oxygen.
Spouce will say sister cooked breakfast for before school when growing up as child. Now after 7yoa lived with grandparent not sister.
Sister says hes making up lies because things he says never happened.
They always manipulated him.To point of getting his inheritance 401k cashed in at earliest they came from out of state to get him to take to another state to get 401k left from stepfather that was left to be able to take care of him.
Because, what he did for his mother when the other siblings disowned her for marring stepfather.
Because, forgotten memory filled in with logical want to be plesant thoughts about relationship.
Now in disorder husband not recognized should be husband . Told husband. Brain knows has emotional attatchment should recognize husband. So brain says, I don't recognized this person as my husband, I am told it is my husband whom I most certainly would recognize.
Locical conclusion for brain, trying to trick me with Impostor; I would know husbands face.
Another disorder there is with lack of facial recoginition recall too, result of brain trauma.But, don't think this in your case.
Please address this with doctor.Maybe have husband come in while Dr. there if "imposter syndrome "is that constant to observe behavior.
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The pain medications could be the root of the problem, or as suggested it could be an infection or another medication. She definitely needs to see a primary doctor for a physical, and perhaps a psychologist (if a neurologist has said there is no dementia).

As you recognize, this is highly abnormal behavior, so looking for the cause makes sense. Sometimes it takes more than one doctor to get to the bottom of things. This is not to denigrate the doctor, but they can't all be experts in everything. Good luck to you,
Carol
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As others state above, it could be a brain disorder. There is a condition, though I won't list it here. It's when a person is unable to recognize the face of a person that they actually know. A neurologist should be able to check that out.
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There is a type of delusional disorder that occurs in one specific area. The person is apparently normal in all other areas. It can appear in middle age later life. Some times it is a specific paranoia such as that their spouse is cheating even though they are elderly and there is absolutely no evidence to support the conjecture. Some times it is that someone is "in love" with them even though there is no evidence. Sometimes it might be that people are breaking into the house and moving things or taking things. There are many other variations. It might be a good idea to get a psychiatric check up as well as talking to her doctor. If it is specific delusional disorder then there are medications that can help.
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Once medical issues are ruled out, then one learns tricks to cope. If she does not know who he is do not force the issue, say he a good family friend, who is staying with her for a while. Have lots of pictures up with them together. Start conversations you know from the past she likes talking about. The in the moment thing is not that she remember they are married, but they get along. There are times when all of us look at our spouse and wonder who they really are. Maybe it the new shirt or haircut throwing her off. We all remember people different ways. Ask her is she remember her wedding, or her family, these leading edge questions can help. Play their favorite song. Do not make it a huge deal, cause the stress will not help. We all have that day we look in to the mirror and see a very different fae than the one in our memory. think of it like that.
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An interesting and informative response. My late husband, who had Alzheimer's, asked me, "How long have we been together?" Although he didn't recall that we were married three years before, he appeared to recall that we were close. I appreciated that.
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My husband sees me, his wife, as someone else all the time. He will recognize my whole family, but not me. It does not matter what you tell him or who tells him that I am his wife he does not believe them. So what they see if very real do them. This is extremely difficult for the caregiver. His neurologist diagnosed it as Capgras Sydrome or delusions. Read up on it, it will explain it very well, so you can understand what is going on. It's very heartbreaking and difficult to cope with.
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Dear ConcernedChild - certainly whenever a loved one shows really bizarre behavior, the first thing is to go IN HASTE to her doctor and, here, I would definitely go to her neurologist if she has one or get a referral from her PCP. This seems neurological -- or psychiatric -- or both (either of which COULD be side effect of med, except -- to me and I have no medical training -- for the lack of recognition being just of her husband. One thing I think would be very helpful for the physicians if you started keeping a LOG of each time this happens and recording SPECIFICALLY whether she is mad at him (and why) and/or anxious (and why, if you can guess). Time of day, time since last meal, time of last Rx... all that info could be clues to the doctor. Also, it's important to remember that dementia is "brain failure" -- it is NOT simply loss of memory, although that is often, especially in Alzheimer's, ONE sort of dementia. an early symptom. Also not being able to think of a word and substituting one that is "in the ballpark" -- my "wake up moment" was when Mom couldn't think of the word "roof" and called it "ceiling". Also, I understand the loss of "executive function" - the ability to organize/prioritize, to initiate, to plan, to make decisions, etc. occurs fairly early on although I'm sure in some cases (including my Mom) these deficits were not quite so obvious as she had never been decisive, and was temperamentally more "reactive" than "proactive", for example. It's good that she has no observable memory loss but you are wise to strongly suspect that SOMETHING untoward is going on. Good luck and please let us know what you find out and know that if you need this community at any time, we'll be here! Angels watch over you! Lolli
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Tell her doctor about her symptoms, This is not normal...
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Do an Internet search for "capgras syndrome" and "imposter syndrome".
This is somewhat common in later stages of dementia. It is not common in earlier stages. Once you have a good understanding, consult with your Doc who prescribed the antipsychotic med. Good luck.
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It sounds to me like the problem was missed by the doctor. I just saw a video that helps me better understand things just a little better. One video by a professional said that sometimes patients can get a like diagnosis as much as three years after they start having problems. You may want to speak to the doctor about what's going on so it can be properly addressed
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