My mother in-law just had her 84th birthday & now she does not recognize me at all. She keeps on saying "Get out of my room..who are you? What do you want?!! Sue(my wife)..what does this man want here, please ask him to leave!"
She also speaks to people & her brothers that have died & when you tell her to accept that they have died, she goes crazy, starts swearing and lashes out to hit you..
How does a person handle this situation?
When your MIL doesn't know who you are and is fearful I would strongly recommend doing what you have to to remove that association of fear with you or any "stranger" for that matter at this point since she isn't apt to come in contact with any real strangers who shouldn't be there anymore. If she is too agitated to hear reason, leave and let her get used to you again. When she screams to your wife "who is this stranger" let your wife (whom she recognizes) go in and calm her down, "Mom I'm sorry I thought you would recognize Joe, he was helping me out. You know I would never let a total stranger come in alone without introducing you right?" "Mom this is my husband Joe, you remember our wedding?" or "Mom this is Joe, I forgot to warn you he just shaved his beard he does look so different but I kind of like it don't you?" Or you could always just remind her you are one of her caregivers that helps Sue out and then give her an excuse for not recognizing you right off the bat. Giving her a legit out, in my experience, causes far less digging in on their part because it gives them some control and allows them to save face, so to speak. If MIL eyes aren't good that's a great out, you aren't wearing your glasses or your new glasses make you see better so I'm not just a familiar out line anymore, hahahaha. My mom can laugh at herself, we are lucky so we always try to lighten these moments with laughter.
These episodes aren't a reflection on you at all, try to remember that, they are part of her disease process and there is constantly going to be adapting, a new normal going on, it's a marathon process most of the time rather than a sprint which can be both fortunate and unfortunate but there is no changing it, there is just changing the way we approach it.