I had mine out in 1958 when I was 10, along with something called my “adenoids”-- what the heck are those? The overnight experience was not a good one. I stayed out of hospitals for the next 50 years.
I have a vague idea that tonsils have, in recent times, been determined to have some value and maybe shouldn’t have been yanked so casually from all those little kids’ throats.
Not sure if this is a GQ or IMHO. Move if necessary.
People who have tonsil problems will have them periodically throughout their lifetimes if they are not removed. It is much more profitable for the medical establishment. If you remove them, it’s “one and done”, so to speak. If you leave them in, you get all that money from doctor visits and drugs for a lifetime.
A couple of years go (give or take), the medical establishment, without much fanfare, lowered the AD1 test level considered indicative of Type II Diabetes. By doing so, they were able to justify putting a whole bunch more people on drugs.
Yes, you’re right, I have real trust issues with our “medicine for profit” health care system.
As a data point…my brother had his taken out in or around 1982, but I never had mine out (2 years younger) even though I suffered from a lot of earaches and a lot of strep throat. My mom always wondered why they never recommended me for a tonsillectomy but we figured that the early 80s was when the shift to avoiding surgery happened.
My niece had her adenoids out a couple years ago, and just had her tonsils out this past fall. She had to go through a LOT of testing before the tonsils came out, including a full sleep study, to make sure they were absolutely a problem.
I don’t see it as a way to get money from needing more care. I see it as reluctance to do surgery on anyone who doesn’t need surgery. YMMV.
Adenoids are tonsils too; specifically, a set of tonsils at the extreme back of the nasal cavity, where it bends down into the throat (above and behind the soft palate).
Tonsils are lymph nodes (or lymphatic organs) that face into the eating/breathing tract to help catch micro-organisms as they pass by. They’re immune system organs.
IANADoctor, but that’s been my impression as well. I never had tonsil problems, but my wife and one of my kids have had their surgically-accessible tonsils (adenoids and palatine tonsils – those are the ones people think of as “tonsils”) removed because of continuous allergy-based swelling interfering with Eustachian tube flow (constant ear infections).
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, there were a lot of woo-ish tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy surgeries to “solve” issues like bedwetting and mental retardation :eek:.
Since the surgeries are usually done under general anesthesia and has a slight chance of dangerously heavy post-op bleeding, the risk is not really justified except for a few fairly clear issues. Certainly not because “let’s just take 'em out, they’re not useful anyway.” :dubious:
Anecdotally, I was born in 1954 and by the time I was 8 it already wasn’t being done routinely, at least in California. They’ve finally figured out that what were thought to be useless body parts, like your tonsils and your appendix, do serve a function, and while removing them isn’t necessarily detrimental, there’ some value in leaving them in your body until they become infected.
Moderator Note
Jasmine, professional jabs are against the rules in GQ. In addition, this does not answer the question in the OP. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Hmm. I never had mine out. And last year I had a tumor on my left tonsil. Apparently surgery wasn’t recommended as treatment. But I do wonder if it would have been better than chemo and radiation.
Is that kind of an unusual place to get a tumor? Smoker? Chawin’ tobaccy? Didn’t drink enough hooch to drown it? I’m intrigued.
BTW, I’ve had mine out three times (bad doctoring the first two), adenoids four (?). Until today, I didn’t know it had anything to do with ear infections, which I had many as a tot.
Could it be that issues that used to be treated by yanking the tonsils out are now more often (and more safely) treated with antibiotics and other medication? My WAG.
The real villains are the trial lawyers such as John Edwards (special interest group of the Democrats) who target doctors forcing them to perform unnecessary surgeries and raising their insurance coats, at tremendous fees for themselves (natch).
Capitalism has worked extraordinarily well in providing top quality products at a low cost in other fields. No reason why it shouldn’t work in medicine if given a chance.
I had chronic tonsil stones as a teenager and got my tonsils removed because of it. Considering they make corpses smell like roses in comparison, I have no regrets whatsoever.
Curiously, both my oncologists told me it was a relatively common cancer that is prevalent in middle aged men who don’t drink. So you’re not far off.
And I’ve never smoked or done anything with tobacco. So that’s out.
I was born in 1967 and have never had either one taken out. I think it was more an economic thing than a ‘doctor wouldn’t do it’ thing as my parents were very poor.
As a middle-aged man who quit drinking a couple years ago, I wonder if I would be susceptible to the same thing.
I also don’t smoke or chew tobacco either.
Way back when, if you got too many throat infections, doctors would almost routinely just take your tonsils out. Tonsils were thought of as kinda useless back then, and were just a good way to get a throat infection. As time went on, they started to realize that the tonsils actually did serve a useful purpose as part of your immune system, and in most of those cases, taking the tonsils out actually probably did more harm than good. But they kinda over-corrected a bit and became reluctant to take out tonsils even in cases where they probably should have. I personally was a part of this second wave. I was born in 1966 and should have had my tonsils taken out in the 70s, but my doctor was reluctant to do so and I had constant problems with throat infections. Finally as an adult I went to a different doctor and had them removed, and my health improved quite a bit as a result.
So, late 60s to early 70s is probably where the shift occurred. By the 80s they realized that they needed to take tonsils out more often than they had been in the 70s, but they never went back to just taking them out at the drop of a hat like they had been doing originally.
At least that’s my experience with it, in the West Virginia area. The timeline may be shifted a bit for other areas.
Moderator Warning
Jim’s Son, since I just gave a note on professional jabs, and you chose to throw in a political jab on top of it, this will be an official warning.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
That may be why I seem to have an ironclad immune system.
Maybe I should thank my parents for not having mine removed.
These days, T & A is indicated if there are significant problems with obstruction or infection. Current recommendations per UpToDate:
There are other reasons to have the procedure, but it certainly is de-emphasized over what it was prior to the early 1970’s. In origin, it was felt that prophylactically removing tonsils before they became a problem would prevent not only a lot of strep throat, but also rheumatic heart and kidney disease. Doctors of earlier eras saw a lot of kids get damaged, or die, from strep infections.
So, might one say… ahem:
Also, I’d like to point out that T&A is always indicated.
Buh-dum-tsss!
Seriously, thanks for sharing your expertise.
Tonsillectomy used to be used to treat recurrent sore throats or strep throats. They have fallen out of favor due to doctors realizing that most throat problems in children are resolved by age. They are still used if a patient has strep throat more than seven times in one year or has a form of sleep apnea caused by swollen tonsils. Treating strep throats with antibiotics instead of surgery is much cheaper and less dangerous to patient.