Local anesthesia for a tonsillectomy

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

This thread reminded me of the fact that, when I was 12 or 13 (1970-71?), I had my tonsils removed under local anesthesia.

In the dim recesses of my memory, it seems that my advanced age (!) had something to do with the decision to use a local anesthetic.

I only remember two things about the procedure: the gag-inducing stuff I had to gargle before they put the needle in to numb my throat completely, and the surgeon showing me my tonsils afterwards.

Have any other Dopers had experience with a tonsillectomy with a local?

#2

Tonsillectomy – Geez, I can spell it correctly one place but not the other. :smack:

#3

I had mine removed when I was about 10 and they used a general. I imagine they would have had to tie me down otherwise.

#4

I still have my tonsils. Matter of fact, I still have all original parts. Weird ain’t it.

#5

In Roald Dahl’s autobiographical book Boy, he recalls having his adenoids removed with no anesthetic and no warning–the doctor just shoves the scalpel into his mouth and cuts.

Little Roald is luckier a few years later when his nose is sliced off in a car accident; the doctor puts him under with chloroform before sewing the nose back in place.

I’m not entirely clear on whether adenoids and tonsils are the same things… I somehow have the idea that adenoids can grow back.

#6

I had mine out with a local when I was in my teens. It was awful. Partly because no one prepared me for what it would be like. I was horribly afraid, and I swore afterward that the local anaesthesia didn’t take. The doctor said that could not possibly have been the case. I remember to this day being told to spit out what was in my throat and mouth and seeing a basin filled with blood and gore. Not a pleasant memory at all.