Tonsillitis HolyCrapitis

Feeling relieved, but not happy.

Everyone makes mistakes.  I make more than my share.  In my view, trustworthy people own up to their mistakes immediately. People that are not trustworthy do not.

Pam got out of the hospital on Saturday, January 18th, after undergoing a barbaric experience with an ENT resident trying to aspirate an infection in her right tonsil. The procedure failed, miserably. So, since the abscess was not successfully drained, the antibiotics have not really touched it.  The little walled off pus pocket of bacteria in her right tonsil has been sitting there working overtime to infect Pam's whole system.  And, since she is on drugs that suppress her immune system, she couldn't fight the infection herself.  And, when she gets an infection, the graft vs. host disease in her gut flares up, so she has not been able to eat anything other than chicken noodle soup and Boost without throwing up. One more week of suffering that was largely avoidable.

Early yesterday (Monday) morning, I called the Bone Marrow Transplant clinic and explained that Pam was not getting better.  True to form, they did the right thing, and got Pam in to take a look.  Truthfully, they could not do much.  They looked at her tonsil, confirmed it was still infected, and called the ENT clinic to get Pam squeezed in a week ahead of her scheduled follow up. They were great.  They were empathetic, but practical, as usual.

We had the appointment with Dr. Peck, who is a fellow today. She has wisdom born of more experience.  She made it clear that she didn't agree with the procedure that was attempted by the ENT resident, and explained why with honesty, candor, and respect. Then she said "I need to aspirate that tonsil. If I can't do it, we will need to get you scheduled for a tonsillectomy."  Pam was a little freaked out, after the horrible experience in the hospital.  But, I reassured her that this needed to be done.

Dr. Peck did a great job.  It didn't look like a lot of fun, but compared to the hospital tonsil-hacking, it was a walk on fresh marshmallows strewn over thick pile carpeting.  Pam is tired. I am tired. But, I am confident that the tonsil will now drain and this latest infection will be conquered.

Part of the journey.