How long since your LO recognized you ?

Crushed

According to my notes the last time DW knew my name, knew her own name,  or recognized me standing in front of her  was March  of 2019.    Two years ago.   The only relief I have about the last Covid year is that she does not miss me at all.  I am nothing to her.  She is not suffering.  I see her on Face Time 5 days a week.   That allows me to check on her condition.and somewhat on her mood.  She can swallow what is put in her mouth and she can walk.   She is well cared for. She looks lovely.  She is 68 years  old.  She can go on for years this way .

David J

Crushed, I think about you and your situation often and wonder if that is where my DW and I are headed. She usually knows my name but I am just the guy who takes care of her. I think that we are all in purgatory waiting for things to go up or down, but as we all know, it is an ever downward trip. You faced a decision of whether to place your DW or not, and made the best choice for you and your DW. She is well cared for and happy so count yourself lucky. Those of us with our LO at home are also missing them, even though they are here with us. 

I know that we can only send words to you in this forum, but I hope that they help. Be happy that soon you will be able to visit in person and that may ease your pain a bit. 

Dave

Doityourselfer

It's good that your wife isn't suffering.

My husband knows my name/recognizes me most of the time.  If he's in his agitated state, he doesn't know who I am.  When I ask him what his name is, he'll say another name but I believe he doesn't understand what I'm asking.  He can still feed himself and can still slowly walk but can stand in the same spot for a while.  He no longer paces.  During the day he sits.  After dinner he goes right to bed.  

He hasn't been out of the house since late October.  His doctor and a nurse came to our house Saturday for a check up.  My husband recognized his doctor.

Crushed

The critical decision was to keep her in Memory care  last March.  Our children were fanatic that I not bring her home. At home Covid could kill both of us since I needed help in caring for her.     DD#1 has a Johns Hopkins public health PhD in Molecular biology and is with FDA. She was terrified at the nonsense being spread about Covid  "going away"  We cancelled the August family trip to Yellowstone in March. I stored  literally months of food on her advice.
12% of the patients in her facility died of Covid.  She was lucky. 

Laurention

To answer your question .  It would be mid 2018 when DW could no longer recognize me...I do sincerely believe that in the last few days of her life she did recognize my voice . Maybe not who I was ?? but 48 years of marriage can have a lasting effect ??

You say your DW can still walk, and swallow food ? The struggle with swallowing started about a year before she passed.. DW lasted 10 days with no food or water ..LTC staff kept her comfortable .. I lost count of how many Covid tests I went through , it was all worth it because I  did mange to get in and  held her hand as she passed   DW was 30 days short of her 65th birthday, and she went peacefully.

Mike

lsh42

My DH has not known who I am for 2 years now. Our journey started in Nov. of  2009 six months after we married.  We had a zoom appt with a Dr. and the doc asked my DH who was that person sitting next to you and my DH said his mother. His mother died before we met.

Marie58

My DH is nonverbal so it's hard to know what he thinks/knows. Starting about one year ago, I believe he doesn't know who I am, but sometimes knows that he knows me or that we like each other. 

 I am now able to visit him in his room at MC. (What a blessing!) I show him pictures and he doesn't really react to any of them anymore, from any time in his life. He doesn't seem to recognize himself at any age, or his parents, or our children, or our grandchildren, or me, in any of the pictures. He's declined so quickly. He was diagnosed just under 5 years ago. He just turned 65. 

ladyzetta

My DH spent the last year and a half of his life in a MC facility. He recognized people. At times he knew I was his wife and times he knew my name and at times he thought I was one of the caregivers. 

I had pictures of the kids and grandkids on the walls in his room. I would point and ask if he knew who this was, he always knew it was someone he loved. He would give me a name and it was always the names he knew but it was not for the one I was pointing at.

 I always took our little dog in for the visit and he loved her but sometimes he would remember her name but most of the time he called her his cats name. He really loved the cat it was his but I was not able to take him in to visit. 

He was very mixed up with names and faces but he loved the names and faces he was referring to.  That was special. 

Rescue mom

Wow zetta it sounds like your DH kept a lot of those recognition abilities. It’s interesting to me, my DH knows me (the first thing everybody asks, although he often calls me by the dogs name)  but he does not know or remember the grandchildren at all. He seems to remember the kids but nothing current about them, like having kids, moving away, etc. It’s like the last 30-40 years or so are just gone for him, which I think is not unusual for Alzheimer’s. I often wonder when the day will come he does not know me.

loc3762

Since March 5th of this year my DH calls me, "You" or "Hey".  Hurt at first but now I just roll with it.  Leslie