Conversations: #02

1. "Do you still have your tonsils or adenoids?"
2. "Yeah, I think so. Why do you ask?"
3. "Well. At the clinic, whenever there's a kid or someone who has sinus problems, usually the clinicians will just recommend removing their tonsils and adenoids."
4. "Does that help? What does removing them do?"
5. "Hmm", she paused for a second. "I'm not actually too sure. I mean, sometimes they can get inflamed, and that can cause problems."
6. "But, do they only remove them if they're inflamed?"
7. "No, it just seems like they recommend removing them if they aren't really sure what the problem is – or at least if it seems like it could help. Like, if a parent comes in and they say their kid gets out of breath quickly when running around and makes wheezing sounds when they breathe, it will probably be the tonsils or adenoids blocking their airways. So they just remove them."
8. "Is that safe? Like, what do they actually do?"
9. "Well, some parents get all freaked out by the idea of surgery – which, I mean, I guess it is a little scary thinking of your kid going under the knife. But some of them just go along with it and get them removed. As for what they do – I know the adenoids are part of the immune system. But I don't think they do much. So removing them is fine."
10. "And there are no side effects of getting them removed?"
11. "Nope. None that I know of."
12. "Weird… that's kind of like, I think it was around the 1920s, where on people's 21st birthdays, they would get all their teeth removed and get a pair of dentures as a gift."
13. "What?! All of them? Why?"
14. "It was so they didn't have to pay for any dentist work. Don't need to see the dentist if you don't have any teeth."