The Tonsils

There I was getting my hair cut yesterday and the new hairdresser I was trying out starts talking about tonsils.

My hairdresser, who's 60th birthday was yesterday, has SO much energy.  I hope I have as much energy as she does when I'm 60.  So she's chopping away at my hair, and I'm trying not to be nervous because, she's hopping around my head and clipping away at my hair and talking like a crazy lady and asks if I've ever seen the movie Steel Magnolia's. I say Of course I have - I named my dog after Ouiser in the movie.  So we bonded for a few minutes over Steel Magnolia's and then she asks how old I was when I saw it, so I say probably 11 or 12 when I had my tonsils out.   Which brings about the stories.

She told me several good tonsil stories so I thought I would share.

Tonsils in a Camp
  She has a 90+ year old friend who is a holocaust survivor.  One day she was at her friend's house and the older lady starts to tell her about her time in the concentration camps.  So the story goes she was 14 when she went into the camp and had to work very hard to stay alive because if you didn't work you died.  But she got very very sick and had a horrible infection in her tonsils.  There happened to be a Jewish doctor in her camp who found a way to examine her.  He said that in order for her to survive she had to have her tonsils out.  However, in the camps they weren't allowed to have medicine or pain killers so the doctor told the girl that if she would promise to sit very still and not move that he could cut out her tonsils with a contraband knife that he happened to have.  So she could stay sick and die, risk bleeding to death while the doctor cuts out her tonsils and maybe die or maybe live.  So the girl says she can do it - sit still while the doctor cuts out her tonsils...and he cuts them out of her throat without meds or pain killers with a little old knife...and she's 90+ years old today and alive to tell the story.   CRAZYNESS!!!!

The Accidental Tonsillectomy
The Hairdresser then takes me to shampoo my hair and while she's shampooing remembers this...

She was maybe 5 or 6 and her little brother was playing with a new train set that had little stop signs and people and trains, etc.  She was goofing off and climbing on things and their mom told him to stop but he didn't listen.  A little while later he fell, and screamed while he fell, and a little stop sign from the train set went into his throat and got stuck.  She says there was blood everywhere and she remembers her brother choking and gagging and so much blood.  Her mom came over and grabbed the end of the stop sign and yanked it out so her brother could breathe then took him to the doctor.....and then they found out that her mom yanked out his tonsils with the stop sign while she was keeping him from choking to death.


I listen to these stories and don't share - but can't help but remember my dad's favorite story to tell us when we were younger about how he got his tonsils out.

The Rusty Old Tomahawk 
So my Dad's story (in a very abbreviated form) goes that he was very little and very sick and stumbled out down by the river where he met an old Indian man with a tomahawk.  So after some very dramatic events, etc. the old Indian man sticks  his tomahawk down my Dad's throat and chops out his tonsils.   He always claimed it was a true story....just as true as how he got chicken pocks when a truck loaded up with chickens crashed in front of him as he was walking home from school and all the chickens pecked him all over until he got the pocks.   Ummm-hmmm.....true stories my Dad tells.  Ask him today and who knows what he'll say.


Oh and then my mom knows a lady who's tonsils had to be taken out multiple times because they kept growing back.   Lol and that's all I have for tonsil stories for the day.

If you have some good ones feel free to share.   Tonsils make for a very random but interesting conversation.