Ep 134 Tonsils: Underestimated and underappreciated

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2024

⏱️ 93 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Raise your hand if you or someone you know has had their tonsils removed. If your hand is sky-high, there’s a pretty good chance that you (or that person you know) are from the US and were born before 1980. Of course, maybe that’s not the case, but tonsillectomies certainly fit in the category of 20th-century fads, along with Tamagotchis and the Atkins diet. While the procedure is still widely performed today (and for very good reasons), the frequency of tonsillectomies has dropped drastically from mid-20th century rates. In this episode, we explore why tonsillectomies became so popular, when they fell out of favor, and what about tonsils makes them worthy of removal. Tune in to be horrified by ancient tonsil removal techniques, shocked at how long it takes new knowledge to change policies, and appreciative of just how cool tonsils actually are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:03.2	Hello.
0:07.2	My name is Aaron and I'm here to talk about my tonsillectomy experience. So this happened when I was 35 years old. It
0:18.4	started, I guess, in my early 30s. I was getting pretty consistently I would say two to three times a year
0:26.2	some sort of tonsil infection where I would have to be on a two or three week
0:30.9	course of antibiotics to clear it up and this was really doing a number on, well my gut health for one, and just my health in general.
0:40.0	This was kind of taking place right after COVID had started and with these infections came a lot of fevers and just being run down and ill
0:49.8	Which kind of resulted in me missing a lot of work because we weren't 100% sure if it was COVID or not.
0:55.0	It never was, but I just had to keep going in for these infections over and over.
1:01.0	And finally my doctor said this is too many antibiotics have you
1:07.8	considered having your tonsils taken out because this is probably just going
1:11.8	to keep happening.
1:13.0	And I thought about it, and my coworker, her son,
1:18.0	who I don't remember how old he was,
1:20.0	maybe eight or nine, had just had his tonsils out and he was fine. Two days later he was back
1:26.7	at school. So I thought well this can't be that bad. Kids do it all the time. And I asked my doctor, you know, how long would I be out of work? And he said probably two to three days. So I put in for two to three days and scheduled the procedure.
1:45.0	So I went in, everything I guess went really well.
1:50.0	My husband was there when I woke up.
1:53.4	I don't really remember this, but I guess when I woke up,
1:56.0	I was trying to yell.
1:58.5	So they actually had to come in and re-sidate me
2:01.8	because I was coughing so much. So I spent an extra few
	...

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