Coconut Water

According to the last visit with the doctor, we are supposed to limit my grandma's fluid intake down to 1.5 - 2 liters a day. I don't think she drinks that much in a day anyway so it's hard to limit her. The doctor said that all liquid should be considered in a day, including soups or I guess anything that contains a substantial amount of liquid. Because our only advice was to limit her fluid intake, we started thinking about what else we can do. My mom had the idea of giving her Gatorade to help replenish the electrolytes in her body. Just as athletes drink water to replenish their electrolytes. We knew that there was quite a bit of sugar in Gatorade, so I started to wonder if there was anything else we could do to help her sodium levels. I feel like we can't limit her fluid intake because she doesn't drink that much anyway. So we are going to ignore that for now, and figure out another way.

I am a fan of  Holistic Dad on facebook. He is always posting natural ways to heal the body and various issues. So I posted on his page about my grandma's situation. I told him we were thinking of giving her Gatorade to help her sodium levels. He wrote back and reminded me that Gatorade has a lot of sugar in it, so maybe I should try something different. His suggestion...Coconut Water. He basically told me that coconut water is like the natural equivalent to Gatorade, only ten times better because it's natural, and it has more nutrients. I thought that was a genius idea. So I went out to the store the next day and picked up some coconut water.

I took it to my grandma's house, and added a little bit to each jar of her juice that I juice for her. The next day, she started telling me about how she had already gone to the bathroom 3 times in 1 day. Which is kind of out of the ordinary for her. Whenever I have a question about something, or want to know what will heal something, I go straight to the internet. I typed in "coconut water as a laxative", and sure enough, I read that there is a LOT of fiber in coconut water, and can have a laxative effect on some people. In my grandma's case, this is a good thing. As long as it doesn't get out of hand and get to the extreme, than I think this is good for her.

She has been drinking the coconut water for about a week or two, and so far so good. However, we won't know how it is affecting her sodium levels until we go back for another blood test. She has to have her thyroid tested this month, in addition to a full workup, so maybe we will find out then.

She is still feeling good, and getting around great. Today she ran a bunch of errands with me. She had a hair appointment with her hair lady Pauline at 10:30 am, then we went to the dollar store and loaded up on birthday cards for everyone from now until the end of the year. After that, I had to go to Clark's nutrition store, and then over to Sam's Club. She waited in the car while I ran into Clark's, but then came into Sam's Club with me to pick up a few things. She had a full day, and I'm sure she will sleep well tonight.