On Having a Tonsillectomy

I never posted about this back when it happened, but I had my tonsils removed after battling chronic strep throat and tonsillitis for fifteen years. On June 28th I had the surgery and let's just say that for an entire month I wanted to die. Even though I had spent most months in the previous two years very sick with one infection or another, I began to doubt whether or not I'd made the right decision. And having the surgery was not something I'd taken lightly at all. In fact, I'd chickened out twice in the previous decade after having gone through the process and scheduling surgery. Then the time would come and I'd be too scared to go through with it. So I'd then endure another cold and flu season from Hell and live with tonsills the size of large walnuts on a daily basis. Yes, even when I was not sick, my tonsils were always huge and it was really affecting my life.

In April I became very, very sick. I finally said "enough is enough" and I had a consult with an ENT in May. He agreed that I was a perfect candidate for the sugery so we scheduled it for June. I knew the recovery would be bad, but I had NO IDEA that it would be that bad. It was in and out sugery and I was back home that evening. But by the next day....I felt like I was dying. It's a pain like I can't describe. Completely unbearable and horendous. And it is far more diffucult after a person goes through puberty because their throat and anatomy is so different than that of a child. For six days I did not eat or drink a thing, except for the crucial sip of water every few hours to literally choke down a pain pill.

At the end of that week I was so dehydrated and I was seeing pink spots everywhere I looked. I was in very bad shape and I ended up back in the hospital to get pumped full of fluid. I dropped almost thirty pounds in two weeks, but it is a diet that I do not recommend.

Now looking back, I see that it was one of the best decisions I'd ever made in my life. I have gone through the fall allergy season which is normally horrific, but this year it was very bearable. And now I have a very bad case of bronchitis and a sinus infection, and although it's miserable and I'm in pain in other ways, I can't tell you how grateful I am that I don't have my tonsils anymore. This illness would likely do me in if I still had them. It's been six months since I had the surgery, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is one th fence about having it done.

I wanted to record this so that I don't forget what a great decision I made to finally go through with it. I now see that is was very much worth the month long recovery from Hell.