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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

T Is For Tonsillectomy

I was lucky enough to spend the last week+ laid up with a charmingly painful and lingering sore throat. What's really annoying is that it was a total rerun. Yep, I had the exact same thing last for a couple weeks just a few short months ago. Needless to say, I was getting a little sick of it (no pun intended).

So on Monday, I paid a visit to my friendly, neighborhood otolaryngologist. It took him all of about two seconds to take a glance down my throat and tell me that my tonsils need to come out ASAP. So two weeks from today, on Wednesday, March 12th, I'll have the pleasure of getting my very own tonsillectomy. According to Wikipedia, "The number of tonsillectomies in the United States has dropped significantly from several million in the 1970s to approximately 600,000 in the late 1990s". Ya hear that? I'm retro!

And yes, 30 years old is a little late to be having one but obviously I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. From what I've been told, they'll just keep getting infected until they yank the little suckers. But let me tell ya, what I really love is how it seems to inspire everyone to tell me lovely horror stories about some adult they know that had a tonsillectomy and what an unpleasant recovery they had. Like I need to hear that!

But I'm staying optimistic. I've done really well with surgeries in the past. And I have heard some positive things, too. Like how much better overall people have felt after healing up since you don't realize how much chronic conditions like this take out of you when your body is constantly fighting infection.