Yanking Tonsils

Here’s another memory from when I was about 5 years old: getting my tonsils out.

I don’t remember much in the way of being prepared for this. My mom took me to the hospital in the evening. My dad was probably at work. My grandparents were home with my little brother. I don’t remember much in the way of a goodbye from my mom. A nurse took me to a communal room with a television and put me in a wheelchair that was way too big for me and brought me a supper tray. I was left totally alone.

I ate my supper watching the TV. There was one of those “follow the bouncing ball” cartoons with a cowboy singing “I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle” as he rolled on his spurs like wheels. After I finished eating I tried to get out of the wheelchair, but it tilted weirdly because it was so big and I was so small, so I sat back. I tried a couple more times to get out, but couldn’t.

At some point I was taken to a room with 4 cribs and was put in one. I don’t remember if the other 3 had kids in them or not. If there were others, they were asleep. And that was it. I was all alone again in a dark room. In a crib. Like a baby. I don’t remember any covers and I didn’t have my blankie OR my bunny. WHY NOT???

I could look out through the bars of the crib to the window, and there was a building with windows I could look into. It might have been a laundry for the hospital, because I could see a woman at an assembly line taking cloths of some kind and folding them, putting them back on the line. There was NOTHING ELSE TO DO BUT WATCH HER. I probably took some comfort in watching another human being. After a while, though, the cloths stopped coming, the woman left and the lights over there went out. I was desolate.

The next morning someone came to give us shots, and there were 4 of us kids in that room. One girl was so scared of the shot she pulled her arms in her gown. Just like with the dentist, I was totally silent and stoic. I don’t remember the shot. I remember being wheeled into an elevator on a gurney, and then having a wire mask placed over my face in the operating room.

When I woke up back in the crib, a nurse was there and said the babysitter was going to pick me up later. I must have been somewhat emotional by then, because I remember putting my arms around the nurse’s neck for a hug.

And that’s the end of this memory. I know that it was my favorite babysitter, Josephine that picked me up and took me home.  I don’t remember the famous “all you can eat ice cream” afterward, though. And again, this was never talked about with my parents.

Answer to the joke above: Get dressed, the doctor is taking us out tonight!