Tonsillectomy

[shmokes]

I had one Thursday morning.  My throat hurts.

[Bones]

Was it a difficult to get approval for the operation?

Over here the procedure is becoming more & more uncommon. Years ago they would whip them out with the first sign of a problem, now you really got to have persistant problems before it is even considered.

[shmokes]

No.  I have very good health insurance.  I pretty much went in and told the ENT doctor that I wanted them out and he scheduled it.  I had to wait about three months for the surgery (the absence of waiting lists for non-routine procedures in America is a myth), but it wasn't difficult at all to get it approved.  I suppose this also depends somewhat on how reluctant the surgeon himself/herself is about chopping them out.  If an ENT doesn't recommend it insurance won't cover it.

[Bones]

The reason I ask has nothing to do with insurance or medical costs, I thought there were recent suggestions that your tonsils played a somewhat important role in overall health and were not as obsolete as experts previously suspected.

Of course there is also the suggestion that you elected to have them removed to enhance your deep throating abilities. I am not saying this is the case, just throwing the suggestion out there for debate.

[erictrumpet]

I thought once you hit age 11 tonsilectomies were not performed. Kinda like Chicken Pox. Kids' stuff. Anyway I'll bet it hurt like a mofo. Kids can get a freakin leg amputated and then after an ice cream cone they are happy as a clam and jumping around the room and learning to use their cool new titanium prosthetic. Adults on the other hand are wimpy babies and a simple root canal puts us on the couch for a week. Well, me anyway. I would be scared to death to get my tonsils removed. Hats off to you schmokes.

Eric.

[shmokes]

I've heard that they may play a role during childhood in catching and cataloging antigens -- kinda building a database for the immune system, but once into adulthood they are no longer useful and, in fact, continue catching stuff making you sick more.  But who knows?

My wife used to get about 7-10 colds every winter.  It was ---smurfing--- ridiculous.  She would get better from one and start coming down with another one within a couple days.  She got hers out a couple years ago and it's been like night and day.  Now she rarely gets colds.  For a long time she thought she just had a ---smurfy--- immune system.  But her tonsils were so incredibly big that when she got sick they made it difficult to breath.  So she had them out and since then almost no sick.

I'm pretty ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up.  I go through periods of being pretty much fine to being pretty damned uncomfortable.  Yesterday and the day of the surgery I wasn't too bad.  Today is much worse.  Day four or five should be the worst of all, so I'm not looking forward to the next few days.  All things considered, I think I'm doing well.  I'm eating a lot and drinking a lot.  I think my wife had a much harder time of it.  I'm learning which of Gerber's products are bearable and which aren't half bad

The biggest problem is that my head is a phlegm factory but I can't do anything about it in terms of clearing my sinuses or throat cos it's too painful, so it makes it difficult to breath, which makes it difficult to sleep.

Sorry for that last bit.  Kind of nasty.

...and so on. 

[Zakk]

Ahhh.... now I understand why you think I'm such an old guy.

[shmokes]

Actually I don't think the vasectomy will be anything near as bad as this one.  And it's till a few years and a couple kids away 

[Zakk]

It was worse than having my appendix out.  He didn't use enough 'freezing' so I started squirming when he sliced my sac open and yanked the first tube out.  He goes "oh, you can feel that?" and had to pinch off a tube while he shoved another needle in there.  Did I mention they do the whole thing is done with you in a pair of stirrups while a nurse watches? 

It was such a botch, both my fellers went black as night and blew up to the size of grapefruits.  A year later, and every so often it feels like someone gives one a good FLICK.  Wakes me out of deep sleeps sometimes.

Just something to look forward to 

[fredster]

Better than having an orchidectomy and going back to work in 2 days. Don't ask me how I know that, just take my word for it.

So you just elected on your own to do this? Was there any reason besides your wife that you decided to have this done? Have you been sick a lot lately?

[Bones]

I am still trying to recover from hearing "sliced" and "sac" in the same sentence.

[Zakk]

I am still trying to recover from hearing "sliced" and "sac" in the same sentence.

Hear it?  I lived it baby.

[missioncontrol]

I had no problems when the sliced my nuts..

went back to work the next day

[Zakk]

Yours must have been minor surgery.

[Bones]

Yours must have been minor surgery.
   

And the doctor had order special tiny instruments to do the procedure. 

[skippy]

3 years later and I still get a twinge if I move just the right way.  Course I went back to work the next day and pulled all my stiches out and swelled the bad boys up to the size of bowling balls

[Zakk]

Yours must have been minor surgery.

[Zakk]

3 years later and I still get a twinge if I move just the right way.

[Bones]

Arrrggghhhh! I just retracted further than any man has before.

[Ed_McCarron]

Better than having an orchidectomy

They remove the flower from where???

Ugh, never mind.  Looked it up.  Not getting back to sleep now.

[Harry Potter]

Oh crap. I'm having flashbacks. 

[missioncontrol]

3 years later and I still get a twinge if I move just the right way.

[Harry Potter]

Because you secretly want one.

[Zakk]

That ole tonsillectomy doesn't look so bad now, does it 

[missioncontrol]

we went from tonsilectomy to vasectomy in just 7 post.....

[Zakk]

I like to keep pain in perspective.

[Bones]

I like to keep pain in perspective.

Pain only hurts when you let it. The mind is a remarkable thing.

For example, if Shmokes suddenly won a million bucks on the lottery I guarantee he wouldn't notice his sore throat for the rest of the day.

Then again, no amount of money would distract from ones ball sac getting caught in a zipper so my point is definitely arguable.

[DrewKaree]

we went from tonsilectomy to vasectomy in just 7 post.....

and a cut-out-one-of-yer-fellers-ectomy in 9

What, are you all 80 year old Jewish men sitting around going "Pain?  You don't know from pain.  Oi vey, lemme tell ya about pain, bubby"?

[Grasshopper]

"Pain is a thing of the mind. The mind can be controlled." -- Spock, Operation: Annihilate!, Stardate 3287.2, Episode 29

But I bet Spock never had a vasectomy. 

[Zakk]

we went from tonsilectomy to vasectomy in just 7 post.....

and a cut-out-one-of-yer-fellers-ectomy in 9

What, are you all 80 year old Jewish men sitting around going "Pain?

[missioncontrol]

"Pain is a thing of the mind. The mind can be controlled." -- Spock, Operation: Annihilate!, Stardate 3287.2, Episode 29

But I bet Spock never had a vasectomy.

[Bones]

How's the throat now Shmokes and has it improved your deep throating abilities?

[shmokes]

How's the throat now Shmokes and has it improved your deep throating abilities?

It's still too early to test whether my gag threshhold was affected.

Actually I'm doing alright.  First four days were cake.  Day five was a bit worse.  Then yesterday came and it was ---smurfing--- horrible.  The scabs started coming off on day five and were really dropping yesterday.  Today is MUCH better than yesterday so I'm hoping this will mark a trend of recovery.  We'll see what tomorrow holds.

[Bones]

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly our bodies can recover from injury. I know if we don't.... well we die, but the speed it mounts its forces to fight evil and repair damage is incredibly impressive.

[nostrebor]

A Vasectomy is quite simple to define...

At best, it is a week long constant kick in the speedbags.