Inspired

I didn't know it would take so much work to get better. I am learning the hard way that healing my gut is not all about taking lots of naps and eating good food. If I don't make an effort to also walk and do my breathing exercises, my innards get even by cramping up and hurting more than they need to. Pain is a great motivator.

I prefer to see things positively, though, so I was pleased to see a nice little inscription at the base of the bong-like plastic contraption that constitutes my breathing exerciser. Written below the numerals marking off milliliters from 250 to 2,500, it says simply, "Inspired Volume."

Maybe it was the heavier hospital drugs I was taking when I first started using the device a day after my surgery, but my initial thought was, yes, it would be inspiring to raise the plunger to the higher ml levels to show my lung capacity had increased. As I kept working on raising my inspired volume, I realized it was more of a medical term referring to the intake of breath, but I still like my meaning better.

There can be no misinterpreting the label on a float at the left side of the device. Intended to encourage a slow, steady intake of air, the float rises into a "good," "better" or "best" range depending on how fast I inhale. I've gotten pretty good at keeping it mostly in the best range while raising the volume plunger to 2,250 ml.

I've thought of adding my own labels to this instrument. A warning label might say "Ignore this at your peril." The more inspirational label would be, "The more you use this, the better you'll feel." I know that now, but it still feels like a lot of work.