Saturday, November 03, 2012

Tonsillitis

A few years ago, when I was hospitalized for prolonged fever, the ENT specialist examined my throat and said he saw scars on my tonsils. He recommended me removing them since I've had infections before and I didn't think too much of it.

(I'd insert a picture of infected tonsils here but I guess you could Google it on your own if you'd like to see the interesting patterns it makes on the tonsils.)

Now that I'm having yet another severe sore throat this year with tonsillitis (my third, but I really haven't been counting), I'm doing some quick Googling on it and find that apparently tonsils are only supposed to be the first line of defence from infections below the age of three.

So, in my own layman understanding, tonsils are like... appendix? A part of my body that isn't of any use?

It's also one of the most common surgeries done in USA. I'm tempted to explore this but I'm not completely convinced:
1. I really don't need my tonsils for the rest of my life
2. Will this mean I will stop having my blood-in-my-spit sore throats after that?

Hmm...

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