Incentive Spirometers

March 8, 2022 - As part of my preparation for my five-hour-long coronary artery bypass surgery (4 or 5 bypasses) tomorrow morning, I continue to inhale various prescription medications (two bronchodilators and a corticosteroid), and I continue to use these two incentive spirometers to strengthen my lungs. I received the spirometer on the right on March 3, 2022, the day that I was discharged from the hospital following four days of preoperative testing (heart, lungs, carotid arteries, and blood). I received the spirometer on the left during one of my many hospital visits in recent years. I was admitted to hospitals seven times in 2021 and once in December 2020, and often before that, so it's somewhat blurry as to when this particular spirometer entered my life. The newer spirometer is more difficult to use, but it's seemingly more beneficial. To use a spirometer, you suck air in. You do NOT blow air out. I am able to hit a level of 3000 milliliters of inspired volume; a level of 2900 milliliters is average for my age and height, so I am in range. (Obviously, I have been cleared for surgery by my cardiothoracic surgeon, my cardiologist, and a pulmonologist at the hospital.)