Tonsils, tonsillectomies, and the immune system - Thyroid UK

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Tonsils, tonsillectomies, and the immune system

greygoose profile image
42 Replies

naturalnews.com/049058_tons...

They yanked mine out when I was four! I still remember it clearly...

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greygoose profile image
greygoose
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42 Replies
Clutter profile image
Clutter

GG, I was six. Haemorrhaged next day and thought it was my fault because I'd eaten a boiled sweet prior to the op.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toClutter

Awwww that's sad.

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs

first port of defence - aren't they attached to le Thyroid? (I have one missing since my op - no really I do!)

ah, way back then when docs used to examine us?

I had tonsillitis so many times - antibiotics - tonsillitis again, repeat - no op thankfully... (although colleague at work had hers out years ago she had tonsillitis last year - some tissue remains in the throat, she's always ill...)

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toSpareribs

I've no idea if they're attached to the thyroid. But if they are, that would explain a lot! Many years ago, when I was having typical throat hypo symptoms, I went to an ENT, and he said one of my tonsils had regrown. I have no idea how true that is.

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply togreygoose

GG, thyroid and liver can regenerate so no reason to suppose tonsils can't too.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toClutter

We-ell... Maybe, but the heart and stomach can't! So, no reason to suppose that tonsils can. Works both ways. lol

hellybaybee profile image
hellybaybee in reply togreygoose

I dont know how true this is but one of the reasons my gp said he wouldn't get mine removed is because he said it was connected to the other glands around the neck and throat and it was pointless without removing the other glands which made my mom very definite that I shouldn't have it done (hadn't developed a thyroid problem then).

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply tohellybaybee

I'm not sure how true that is, either! He might just have been making excuses, I think!

hellybaybee profile image
hellybaybee in reply togreygoose

TBH those were my thoughts

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply toSpareribs

Spare, not near thyroid, at the very back of tongue.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toClutter

Just because it's not next door, doesn't mean mean they're not connected in some way.

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply togreygoose

They're not attached though which is what Spare asked.

Jaie profile image
Jaie

Me too, I was seven.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toJaie

Must be even worse at seven. Poor you!

gabkad profile image
gabkad

Had mine out about age 5. They were so big and infected, food tasted like pus and I'd barf all the time. Barely could get a trickle of water down past them. Afterwards it was like I had a huge cave in my throat. The sound of water going down when I swallow always reminds me of the change that happened after the surgery. I, for one, am really glad they were removed. They were compromising my breathing. After the surgery I didn't wake up crying at night or pee the bed all the time. My mattress was rotten already.

My older kid had to have hers out at age 4 as well. Same scenario as above. Surgeon said she had the biggest tonsils she's ever removed. My poor kid was suffering maybe worse than I did but who knows? Maybe it was all the same: really bad. She had to be on a liquid diet because solids would get caught in the tonsils and she'd vomit.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply togabkad

That sounds awful! I have no memory of any symptoms before the op. I just remember the op and waking up in the hospital afterwards.

My son had terrible tonsilitis, over and over and over from the age of 3 to five. The doctor wouldn't even see him! I just talked to a silly cow of a receptionist over the phone who hinted that it was all my fault and to give him ice cream. But he couldn't even swallow that!

Then I discovered Vitamin C!!! And at the first sign of white spots, I loaded him up on it. And it worked. But what got me about that was when I went to the chemists to buy the stuff and the assistants wanted to know why I wanted it. My response? Mind your own bloody business!!!

faith63 profile image
faith63

Tonsils can regrow to some extent. Not connect to the Thyroid Gland. I had mine taken out at age 28!!! Most horrible pain ever. I had infections, chronically for about 15 years and on anti biotics all the time. No doctor would remove them!!!

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply tofaith63

No, because they were following the 'latest' guidelines, the latest fashion, so to speak. Incapable of thinking for themselves, it's all or nothing!

faith63 profile image
faith63 in reply togreygoose

Exactly! They had stopped removing tonsils at the time. It was just gross, having those yucky tonsils..i had lots of allergies too. Totally "ripe" for getting Hashi's.. a perfect storm, so to speak.

Treepie profile image
Treepie

I remember the cooling ice cream given afterwards . I was a bit older then you Grey I think,maybe 6.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toTreepie

Well, I didn't get any ice cream! And I've always felt cheated about that! lol

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply togreygoose

Didn't like ice cream, anyway. So there!!!

Angel_of_the_North profile image
Angel_of_the_North in reply toTreepie

I was 8 or 9. And, yes, they force you to eat ice cream, which I hated. Luckily, my gran fed me on steak and green beans when I got home from the hospital. Hurrah!

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toAngel_of_the_North

No, they didn't force me to eat it. There wasn't a sniff of ice cream! But I can still remember the taste of the 'sweets' I was given when I got home. I think they must have been pain-killers.

Angel_of_the_North profile image
Angel_of_the_North in reply togreygoose

Lucky you. All I got was ice cream luckily I managed to give most of it to the boy in the next bed. I can still remember the taste of blood in my throat - and I just got sinus infections instead of throat infections afterwards.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toAngel_of_the_North

Well, I got Hashimoto's! lol

Zephyrbear profile image
Zephyrbear

It was around 1973, when I was doing my nurse training (which I gave up shortly thereafter to nurse animals instead...) that they suddenly decided to stop giving icecream as it was suspected of being the cause of so much post-op infection and they started giving dry toast instead. Apparently the scraping of the toast took away any sloughing that might have grown on the tonsil bed... Funnily enough, there weren't too many enthusiastic takers for this new therapy! I never had mine removed, but two of my daughters had the operation when they were in their 20s.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toZephyrbear

Well, it must have been in 1948/49 that I had mine done, so it wasn't because of that!

Dry toast! Honestly, could they get any stoopider! How many kids are going to eat dry toast!

ollymummy profile image
ollymummy in reply togreygoose

I got the cornflakes and dry toast post op 1983 ish :-( was always ill constantly off school and had op cancelled a zillions times as I always had tonsillitis!!!

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toollymummy

How awful for you!

hairyfairy profile image
hairyfairy

My mother pressured the our gp to refer me for a tonsillectomy when I was 4 because I`d had a few sore throats. After the operation, guess what? still catching colds & gett ing sore throats! The operation did nothing to improve my health, I was just a victim of a medical fashion of the time.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply tohairyfairy

Yup, I probably was, too. If anything, my health got worse!

Holmeschild profile image
Holmeschild

How very depressing.......I had mine out when I was 5 (1955) had the ice cream treatment afterwards and was in bed ages with a ward sister who yelled at you when you moved and got very very cross when I tried to retrieve my teddy bear that had fallen on the floor. Oh joy! And now to realise it was praps unnecessary and even detrimental.................and I really don't remember being ill with sore throats etc as a small child. Most probably explains a lot 'down the line'.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toHolmeschild

:(

deesbees profile image
deesbees

Yep, had the cornflake/dry toast thing - ent hospital in golden square in london, miles from home. Horrible place. Horrible nurses too! I trained later, when i was 20, and it had gone back to icecream. Never liked icecream either!😉

I now keep bees and i swear regular stings in spring kickstart my immunity. Remission is a way off yet but as im actually constructing entire sentences unaided, i think i must be going that way!

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply todeesbees

I think I'll pass on the bee-sting treatment, thank you very much! Sounds worse than ice cream! lol

deesbees profile image
deesbees in reply togreygoose

Haha!! I now, after 10 years, dont even get any redness when im stung-its as tthough my body has nothing to say on the subject. Bee stings arent too bad, no worse for me than a jab from a thorn, far less painful than a wasp sting - 20x the venom load!

Trouble is, i now have lovely gentle bees i can work with who rarely sting so i have become a swarm collector for the BBKA, in hopes of getting a decent dose of bee venom!

Hasnt stopped my left eye enlarging though. Oh well, ill just have to finish each sentence with Aharr, a la pirate!

hellybaybee profile image
hellybaybee

Interesting, I've always had problems with my tonsils and swollen lymph nodes in my neck. GP wouldn't take them out and they were REALLY bad in my teens. I wish he had, my right one is permanently swollen and I have regularly had tonsil stones since my teens, my ears often feel blocked and itchy as does my nose and I have nasal drip. Is it worth having them taken out? Don't think I have enough gp visits to qualify any way as I just came to the conclusion that it's something I have to put up with.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply tohellybaybee

'Don't think I have enough gp visits to qualify any way as I just came to the conclusion that it's something I have to put up with'

Sorry, I don't understand that. Enough gp visits to qualify for what?

It would seem that having your tonsils out when you're adult is very, very painful. And adults I've known that have had it done, don't recommend it! I had mine out when I was five, but I still have post nasal drip and all sorts of other nose, ear and sinus problems. So, I'm not convinced it was worth it.

hellybaybee profile image
hellybaybee in reply togreygoose

from what I've read there are criteria for tonsillectomies which include number of tonsillitis occurrences and gp visits for sore throats. I don't bother going when I get those things as I know it will pass, therefore I think the number of gp visits I've had (or not had) would disqualify me from getting any surgery anyway. Thanks for the feedback... always wondered if it was the wrong thing not to have had them removed.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply tohellybaybee

When my eldest was 3, he had terrible sore throats. he really suffered. But they refused to take his tonsils out. They preferred to blame me, for not giving him his tablets! No idea what the tablets were supposed to do, but when he took them, he vomited them straight up again. They refused to believe me. Terrific arguments ensued! lol But, now, he's a fine healthy man of 48, and no more trouble with his tonsils. :)

Katherine1234 profile image
Katherine1234

Mine out when I was 13 greygoose, Yes, I still remember the pain and vomiting blood for days. Barbaric! Our tonsils are our first line of defence for our immune system,

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