Maybe this is too general for The Quarantine Zone, but I wouldn’t be bringing it up at all, if it weren’t for the implications in COVID-19 resistance. So, bear with me.
I’m 54. That means that it was 20 years ago that I had my tonsillectomy-adenoidectomy. The initial problem-- the one that took me to the ENT-- was that my ears stopped up all the time. Really: just driving through a hilly area in Indiana, or riding an elevator up more than two floors. Someone opening a door in a room with no doors or windows open. Sometimes for no apparent reason. I’d have to go through a sequence to pop them that I’m sure made a lot of people think I had a weird tic.
The ENT thought my tonsils didn’t look great, and that as long as I was going under GA, and the recovery, he should take those out as well. My right was enlarged, and my left looked like it had been poked with a pin, and all the air had been let out of it. I got tonsilliths like crazy in the right one, so I was happy to see them go.
Now, here’s the thing: before age 34, I got viral upper respiratory infections like I was running a B&B for them. It seemed like I was sick more often than I was well.
After the tonsillectomy, nothing. Seriously. I have had a few bacterial sinus infections, ad a case of strep throat I caught because I had a 5-yr-old, but nearly all the sinus infections were cultured to make sure they were bacterial, because I am allergic to a lot of antibiotics, and doctors really want to avoid prescribing them for me. The couple of times the infections weren’t cultured, they were accompanied by fevers over 101°F, and nasty, crusty, red eyes.
I have not had a cold in 20 years. Really. And I don’t think it just had to do with building up resistance over time, because I had a baby when I was 37, and worked in his preschool beginning the following year (where I caught two of the sinus infections, one of which required two courses of antibiotics), so I was crazy exposed to more stuff beginning then. In fact, all but one of the sinus infections, and the case of strep throat happened when the boychik was between the ages of 1 and 7.
Also, it’s not that I never get sick. I get UTIs. I’ve got some weird skin infection right not. I got mastitis twice when the boychik was nursing. I had a cracked filling in a molar get infected about 10 years ago. So my resistance in general isn’t super strong. It’s just that against upper respiratory viral infections, it was noticeably weak, then it improved with the removal of my tonsils and adenoids.
I noticed it right away, because my ears did, in fact, cease to stop up with the slightest provocation, but I thought the real test would be the next time I got sick, because when I previously had colds, my ears would stop up for days in a row.
So was waiting, and waiting for that first post-surgery cold. And it never came. When the bacterial sinus infection came, I was almost disappointed (FTR, ears did not stop up).
I get a flu shot every year, so I have plenty of resistance to influenzas. I have never to my knowledge had the flu, but every cold I ever had was not tested for the flu. It’s always possible that, vaccinated, I had an attenuated case of the flu (I hope not, because I’d hate to think that I spread it), but probably I just had colds.
It’s my understanding that colds are mostly rhinoviruses, but some of them are coronaviruses. What about having tonsils, or tonsils + adenoids out could cause extra strong resistance to these viruses? I could understand if I got them with alarming frequency before, then moved to normal frequency, but how is it that now I never get them? Did I build up a lot of antibodies to the strong and common ones from having so many, and then did losing the red carpet (my tonsils) prevent me from getting weaker ones that most people would just have a 24-hr scratchy throat from?
FTR, I do sometimes wake up with that “You’re gonna be sick” scratchy throat feeling, that previously meant ten days of misery, but now usually peters out within about 12 hours-- I assume it means I’m still being exposed to stuff, it’s just not setting up camp.
Also, FTR, I work in a preschool, which, until COVID, was a green-snot sanctuary, so I’m sure I was WAY exposed to stuff. I did a lot of hand-washing, and avoid-face-touching, and never shared food utensils (other than serving), not even a knife or a common plate, with another teacher. Still, a lot of that stuff is airborne, and I was there, unmasked, for many years.
Anyway, what does such resistance imply for COVID-19?
How much is COVID-19 like other coronaviruses? Does it just make us a lot sicker than the other ones, or is it actually better at bypassing our immune systems?
What’s the best guess at why a tonsillectomy improved my resistance so much, and does it apply to COVID-19, or is that virus just too special?