The life of the caregiver is one where you are kind of always on edge.  When things change in a bad way, you think to yourself…this is it…things are going downhill.  It’s the constant bracing of yourself.  And that’s what I’ve thought recently with mom.  She has great difficulty finding words (expressive aphasia), confusion issues, naming objects wrong and more.

At the same time my own health has been poor, so I started doing green smoothies and making mom drink a big glass of them too.  And lo and behold…she got better!  Her thinking cleared up.  Her confusion cleared up.  And things have seen much improvement.  Then the last few days I’ve been tired and haven’t made any, and I see her confusion is coming back.

I don’t think it’s the green smoothies so much as it is hydration issues.  The brain needs a LOT of water and older people just “sip.”  Giving mom big green smoothies put a lot of liquid and nutrition in her body.

It’s been a great discovery.  But now I’ve got to get back to making them.  Hoping this helps someone else out there too.