By Wednesday of this past week, both of the big kids were back in school.  I had great aspirations for Wednesday and Thursday.  I still have Christmas decorations out.  I have brand new photo equipment begging to be used.  I have piles of folded laundry that no one else knows how to sort and put away.  But instead I spent most of the day Wednesday and Thursday(and so far most of today) in the bed.  I’m finally feeling better(thank goodness!), but on early Thursday morning I thought I was going to die.  Seriously.  I couldn’t breathe because my tonsils were so huge.

See…a few years ago I saw an ENT about my tonsils.  I get some kind of throat pain(be it strep or just an achey throat) about once every month or two.  That’s ridiculous!  So I saw this doctor and he was all, “Those really need to come out.  Now.”  And so I scheduled the surgery for a few weeks later.  The day before I went to go do pre-op blood work, I found out that I was pregnant(the one that later ended in miscarriage), so the surgery was cancelled.   After the miscarriage, the timing just wasn’t right for rescheduling  surgery.  With Marshall’s crazy residency work schedule, I had to figure out how to make sure I had someone who could take care of me and both kids for at least a week.  So…I put if off again.

Early Thursday morning, when I thought I was dying, I had a come to Jesus talk with myself.  It’s time to suck it up and get it done.  So I got Marshall to email one of our friends from med school who is now an ENT, and I have a consultation appointment with her on January 15th.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get the surgery scheduled shortly thereafter.

There are two reasons I’m scared to death of this surgery:

1) they say that this is one of the most painful post-ops ever, and
2) what if something happens and messes with my singing voice.  I would be devastated.

But I have hope on both fronts:

1)after Marshall talked to another ENT, he told me that women recuperate faster and fair better than men, and that I’d probably be fine after 3 day if I would force myself to practice swallowing despite the pain, and
2) Melanie(my ENT friend) said that the way they do surgery now(versus when I was planning on doing it back in 2007) is much safer for singers because it doesn’t even mess with the muscles you use for singing.  Also, I checked with Dr. Google, and this problem I have with my voice just stopping on me mid-note should be resolved once I don’t have those pesky tonsils in the way.
3) Also…bonus points for this solving the problem I have with tonsilliths.  If you don’t know what these are, don’t go check it out unless you’re prepared to be grossed out.

So…in a few weeks, I’ll be braving the knife(or the coblator, actually).   Even after all the good I’ve heard, I’m still scared.  And I want to do it, but I don’t want to do it.  Y’all have to make sure I don’t wuss out!  Promise???

(If you want to see a coblation tonsillectomy, click here to watch the youtube video. It’s a surgery, but it’s blood-less.  Ignore the overly dramatic music, please.)