commodorified | Apropos this rotten cold, a poll.

I've been hearing about this whole 'tonsil removal and ice cream' thing basically forever. And it puzzles me greatly.

Admittedly, I had my tonsils removed when I was 18, and had had serious trouble with them for years, so it was a fairly complicated removal, but it took me slightly more than a week to successfully consume 2 litres of water within a 24-hour period and thus win my release from hospital and my ever-present IV, yclept Henry. (Not, sadly, "Henry IV": I would totally do that now, but this was then.)

Cold water, as well as even the most forgiving solids, took ... rather longer. There's a reason nobody tells you to put ice directly on fresh stitches, let me tell you what.

Had anyone attempted to feed me ice cream directly after the surgery they would have been exceedingly fortunate to escape having suffered no more than a paint-strippingly old-fashioned look (and only because my throat was too swollen to allow me to talk and I was too loaded on Demerol to throw a punch, at that.)

Therefore:

Poll #17145 In this poll, "ice cream" can also mean frozen yoghurt, sorbet, rice dream, etc.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 93

View Respondents

I had my tonsils taken out!

View Answers

I was a child, and there was ice cream, and it was good.
12 (12.9%)

I was a child, and there was ice cream, and it was awful.
1 (1.1%)

I was a child, and there was no ice cream
6 (6.5%)

I was an adult, and there was ice cream, and it was good.
2 (2.2%)

I was an adult, and there was ice cream, and it was awful.
0 (0.0%)

I was an adult, and there was no ice cream.
3 (3.2%)

I retain both my tonsils and an uncontrollable desire to tick boxes.
69 (74.2%)

(Optional but interesting) My tonsils were removed in (year):

View Answers

Crossposts: http://commodorified.livejournal.com/488243.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mme_hardy

I think the bait-and-switch was that they promised you "all the ice cream you could eat" and then you found out you couldn't eat much.

From:

commodorified

Now, THAT is ... seriously offside.

From:

mme_hardy

People used to routinely lie to children for their own good. See also "the dog's gone to a farm in the country".

From:

commodorified

Oh, I know, my parents did it too. Still appalling though.

ETA: Mind, I'd discovered for myself by the age of five that ice cream on infected tonsils was acutely painful, so even had I had them out much younger I doubt they'd have tried that particular line on me. "You'll never have tonsillitis again" would have done nicely as a motivator, and in fact did. It was the doctors who wouldn't go for it.

Edited Date: 2015-12-01 02:12 am (UTC)

From:

mme_hardy

I completely agree.

From:

commodorified

I mean, I knew you did. I find a certain theraputic value in saying it, is all.

From:

krait

"You'll never have tonsillitis again" would have done nicely as a motivator

This was me! It was a scary concept, but 'the end of your endless rounds of strep throat' was a pretty good reason to go along with it.

I do remember having a general sense that ice cream (in the more specific definition) was going to feature in my recovery - via stories and shows; not sure if it was directly promised to me -- where that happened. And I was quite miffed when it turned out I wasn't allowed ice cream, only sherbet/popsicles! (Apparently milk + open thorat wounds = higher risk of infection? So no frozen milk-based things were allowed.)

From:

commodorified

I was caught in the backlash of the 'all tonsils must go' era: the doctors kept swearing that if I had one more bout of tonsillitis (usually followed by bronchitis) then out they would come, and then we'd move. So before I went off to college I arranged it myself. Had I known just how bad it was going to be I moght have bottled out, but I'm glad I didn't.

From:

kindkit

I was promised ice cream and toys, and there were none. It wasn't a deliberate lie, just that when my younger brother had his tonsils out, he was in a children's ward that had ice cream and toys. But he was in a big hospital because his surgery was more complicated. When I had mine out, I was in a small local hospital with no accommodation for children at all (and surly nurses). I was given green jello and scolded for not eating it, although I hated jello.

Given that I spent the first day after surgery feeling incredibly ill because of the anaesthetic, it was probably just as well that I didn't get ice cream. But it didn't seem that way at the time.

From:

commodorified

I was fairly happy about the jello, once I could swallow it. OTOH, I do actually like jello, plus I lost twenty pounds I absolutely could NOT afford to lose after that surgery, so at that point I'd've stuffed icing sugar up my nose to get calories into me.

I did get tired of the green and yellow, but I am reliably informed that there is an excellent reason you can't have red or orange, with which I will not disturb you.

From:

krait

Did blue not exist at the time?

From:

commodorified

As far as I am aware it does not exist NOW. Is this a US thing?

From:

krait

Apparently not. (Note the "we cannot ship this product to the US" disclaimer, which I missed on first viewing!)

I'm not much of a gelatin fan, but I thought I vaguely remembered blue being in the commercials when I was a kid.

Edited (goofed) Date: 2015-12-01 04:03 am (UTC)

From:

kinetikatrue

We do have it in the US, though! As I well know from having made hockey themed Jell-O shots with it this past winter. Mmmm, blue raspberry.

From:

alexbayleaf

I definitely recall politically themed blue and red Jell-O shots at a rather weird office party just before the 2008 US election.

From:

recessional

Your case is definitely extreme, though; most kids who have their tonsils out are back home within 48 hours.

I never had them removed, but many of my classmates did, when I was in elementary. They had ice cream, and popsicles. I did have several egregiously bad cases of strep, and sucked on ice-cubes constantly; to this day if I have a very sore throat I want water as cold as is humanly possible, whereas I've had other people look horrified at the idea.

Edited Date: 2015-12-01 02:50 am (UTC)

From:

commodorified

Yeah. I have the impression that by the time they were done ferreting out the scar tissue I didn't have a whole lot of throat lining. Plus I woke up with everyone involved bending over me looking petrified at one point - I THINK I may have bled spectacularly and scared Hell out of my surgeon, which was oddly embarassing.

I find that serious cold is good for sore throats and unbearable on infected ones, but this may well just be me (and may also be a consequence of the impressive scarring I have going back there even now)

From:

recessional

I'm trying to think about my wisdom teeth and how I reacted to different temperatures on them, but I can't recall.

Though I am hardly a good representative example when it comes to temperature sensations, as when I was little I used to take showers that turned me into a lobster, so.

From:

commodorified

I recall avoiding cold (to drink, ice packs on the jaw were, I was assured, mandatory) after the wisdom teeth as well, though I forget whether that was a) present discomfort or b) the fact that ice was painful before I had them removed and took me awhile to get fond of again.

I do recall very hot drinks being soothing, once they were allowed.

ETA: straws were completely forbidden, which may also have reduced my interest in cold drinks. Also, now I think on it, my TMJ was a bugger for DAYS post-surgery. It was all complicated.

Edited Date: 2015-12-01 03:27 am (UTC)

From:

recessional

Ahaha oh god STRAWS FORBIDDEN *facehands*.

I share this story just because: when I got my wisdom teeth out I was not yet admitting/aware of the fact that I had PTSD.

Specifically PTSD related to an experience of being drunk enough to be totally incapacitated (and probably should have been at the hospital), bleary, etc, and falling asleep/unconscious in the presence of what turned out to be deeply unsafe people.

Waking up out of sedation was . . . special. And as I was sitting there sublimating the panic while being totally non-verbal and not actually having emotions beyond "everyone go away everyone go away humans go away from me I WANT A DOOR THAT LOCKS AND NO ONE ELSE", I got the reminder lecture about straws.

. . . I had nightmares about the fucking straws and what they were going to do, and constantly worked myself up into a panic that I'd somehow sucked the clots out et etc. *facehands*

From:

azurelunatic

Ice and Mountain Dew Livewire were what got me through my first wisdom tooth removal. I think I may have started before the area was properly un-numb, which likely helped.

From:

aella_irene

I had mine out two months ago. Forbidden straws, and hot food, cold food was allowed sooner. I made raspberry ice pops beforehand, and breakfasted on them until I was allowed to chew once more.

From:

perennialanna

I don't remember anyone mentioning straws when I had mine out (all four at once under a general anaesthetic). The first food they gave me was ice-cream, or rather that peculiar frozen stuff rather like hair mousse in texture that passes for ice-cream in schools and hospitals. I had fasted for far longer than necessary (I was supposed to be first on the morning list and eventually went to theatre rather after lunch) and by that point I would have eaten anything.

From:

dine

I cannot really recall what I had in hospital, though I was home in a day or so, and did get some (though not as much as I'd have liked) ice cream and definitely popsicles. maybe it wasn't *great* but at least afaik it was tolerable

From:

commodorified

I am concluding that my post-surgical response to frozen things was perhaps as weird as the rest of my tonsillectomy experience.

From:

graydon

Serious infection involves swelling; icing existing "as swole as it can go" swelling tends to push fluid into unswollen tissue and hurt. (Hydraulically skinned alive ought to hurt, after all.)

If you had a lot of scar tissue come out, the existing tissue would be stretched to close the incision. Cold makes tissue contract. Making tissue when it's stretched to close the incision and neatly stitched up contract isn't a good plan in several respects, notably on the pain front.

So I don't think your response was weird, though the circumstances were.

From:

leecetheartist

They said to eat rough stuff to keep the wound scraped and clean.

Edited Date: 2015-12-01 05:08 am (UTC)

From:

clanwilliam

Yep! I was allowed as much Tayto cheese and onion crisps as I wanted. Win!

From:

tim

I remembered that it hurt a lot during the day or two after, but couldn't remember whether food/drink particularly had an effect. Then I looked up my LiveJournal entry from afterwards and I'd written, "Mmm, living on ice cream for a couple days." So that's your answer.

From:

nineveh_uk

Technically speaking I retain my tonsils, in that I have never had them removed via surgery, but according to the dentist I don't have any tonsils, and indeed I've never had tonsillitis despite ever other bit of my upper respiratory system being rubbish. Either I only ever had pathetic tonsils, or possibly they whipped them out when I had my adenoids removed in 1982. They didn't give me ice-cream then, but stewed fruit that I refused to eat because it was disgusting.

I had ice-cream in hospital after my sinus op a couple of years ago, but it was specifically an attempt to reduce the bleeding, and of course I didn't have a sore throat, just a disgusting one.

From:

shana

They probably took them out with the adenoids - that's what they did with me in 1972.

I don't remember if I had ice cream. I do remember hos much my throat hurt. If my throat starts hurting anywhere close to that I know that I either have strep or there is marijuana smoke in the area. Tonsillitis didn't hurt as much as strep without tonsils does.

From:

alee_grrl

I had my tonsils out when I was about seven years old, and as far as I can remember I was not in the hospital for very long. It may have even been an outpatient surgery. I remember a lot of jello, popsicles, ice cream and pudding. And they were soothing and nice. However I did not have the scar tissue and other problems that you experienced. I was able to swallow fairly easily and while there was pain it was only slightly worse than a case of strep throat.

From:

sharpiefan

I've not had my tonsils out, but my brother did at the age of... six, I think, so in about 1989, and I am pretty sure jelly and ice-cream featured. (He had his out after several ENT issues, and apparently that solved them.)

I had a double tooth extraction a few years back (one wisdom plus the molar in front of it) and was advised to 'be careful' and 'eat/drink on the other side'. Which, considering my mouth was still going numb for a hour or two after said extraction, thanks to a double shot of anaesthetic, was fun to attempt.