Out They Go

A couple of months ago, Aaron was complaining of another sore throat. He was getting them a lot, never tested positive for strep, and with Tylenol he'd be just fine. Sinus drainage? Random topic to whine about?

Nope.

Tonsilliths. Or tonsil stones, if you prefer.

As I peered down his throat one day, I noticed a little white thing sticking out of his right tonsil. Well, that just wouldn't do, so I wrestled him to the ground, promised him money if he'd just let me "look", and then pushed on his tonsil with a Q-tip.

The white thing popped out of his tonsil and stuck to the back of his throat. Aaron was gagging as I tried to pick it up with the Q-tip and pull it out of his mouth. Success!

It was about the size of a small pea, grayish white, firm like a cottage cheese curd, and stinky. Really, really stinky.

So gross.

Soooooo cool!

I thought is was just a big ball of hardened pus, and surely there would be more...but Aaron wouldn't let me "look" again. Surprisingly, his sore throat was completely gone.

A few weeks later it happened again, and once more, it was awesomely cool. And gross and stinky.

Time to see the doctor - this had to be one horrible infection.

Saw the regular doc who sent us off to an ENT, who diagnosed Cryptic Chronic Tonsillitis - the tonsils have swiss-cheese like holes that fill up with food, bacteria, mucous, and saliva, and it gets all compacted and hard (now it's a tonsillith) and bothersome or even painful when it starts to come out. It's actually very common, and many people express their tonsils once a week or more. Sometimes the tonsillith will work its way out on its own or can be coughed out. It can cause bad breath.

Since Aaron was pretty young to be getting these, and they were causing frequent sore throats, we decided to get his tonsils out. Better at 9 than when he's older.

This is a small tonsillith - very similar to what Aaron's looked like.


And this is a really big one. You could pull that one out with tweezers.

So yesterday morning, even though I didn't have my driver's license, insurance cards or money that I could access, we headed to the hospital to have those pesky tonsils removed. Funny...my kid going in for surgery was not the most stressful part of my week.

Geez, we had to get there early: 6:30 in the morning

Glad it's not me!

Cameron being uncharacteristically helpful in getting Aaron into his gown.

Cheery yellow socks

Confident before surgery

Well, maybe just a little anxious

Then 20 minutes of surgery, an hour of recovery and he's dressed and almost ready to go home.

First, we must contemplate the popsicle.

And somehow get it to the mouth.

Home...and this is pretty much the rest of the day.

Sleep tight, Aaron.

I promise I won't let your pain meds run out before I give you the next dose.