Before your surgery you get a gift. It is an Incentive Spirometer. Nice Huh! Not only do you get this gift, but you get tor try it out prior to receiving it, wait there's more. After a brief test drive of your Spirometer, it gets personalized with your name on it. Sounds great doesn't it! When you do your the test drive of your shiny new Spirometer try not to show off.
This is how the Spirometer works. First you inhale as much air as possible, then you put your lips on the white plastic mouth and blow. Easy enough , yes but there is a bit of a catch, you want the little white ball to stay at the top for as long as possible. (that is within reason of course don't be too ambitious).
The nurse will congratulate you on your achievement and take your Spirometer and personilize it for you by writing down the time the ball floated at the top of the tube. She will also do something a little sly, she will reset you Spirometer from 210cc to 400cc. What does this do you may ask? It almost doubles the opening size where the air comes into the device.
Say you're a gifted individual and can suck a golf ball through a a garden hose, this effectively changes the garden hose to storm drain. You are going to pass out before you post the number nurse has written on the Incentive Spirometer. Until I noticed the changed setting I was blowing my brains out and only getting 5cc compared to the 12cc I did on my trial run. Once I found out about the little adjustment I discovered I was at 9cc. Now I have Incentive using my Spirometer, if I hadn't found that little trick they played I would have caved in my head.
Merete said that she saw the nurse change the setting. I think maybe she slid the nurse five bucks hoping that if my head caved in I would be easier to live with. She could just park me on the deck and hang flower baskets off of me.
This is how the Spirometer works. First you inhale as much air as possible, then you put your lips on the white plastic mouth and blow. Easy enough , yes but there is a bit of a catch, you want the little white ball to stay at the top for as long as possible. (that is within reason of course don't be too ambitious).
The nurse will congratulate you on your achievement and take your Spirometer and personilize it for you by writing down the time the ball floated at the top of the tube. She will also do something a little sly, she will reset you Spirometer from 210cc to 400cc. What does this do you may ask? It almost doubles the opening size where the air comes into the device.
Say you're a gifted individual and can suck a golf ball through a a garden hose, this effectively changes the garden hose to storm drain. You are going to pass out before you post the number nurse has written on the Incentive Spirometer. Until I noticed the changed setting I was blowing my brains out and only getting 5cc compared to the 12cc I did on my trial run. Once I found out about the little adjustment I discovered I was at 9cc. Now I have Incentive using my Spirometer, if I hadn't found that little trick they played I would have caved in my head.
Merete said that she saw the nurse change the setting. I think maybe she slid the nurse five bucks hoping that if my head caved in I would be easier to live with. She could just park me on the deck and hang flower baskets off of me.
No comments:
Post a Comment