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My goodness! I’m 75, and I know my pediatrician told my mother that taking out tonsils was no longer done preemptively. My mother had hers out in the 1920s. Taking out tonsils was more or less routine for a time. Not sure if it was considered a revenue generator. And ether? You were given ether? I am astonished.
Yes, ether. And they told me to breathe in deeply. And I did breathe in very deeply thinking that was good. But the effect was horrible. My whole body felt like it was vibrating like crazy. That was while I was still awake!
My goodness! I’m 75, and I know my pediatrician told my mother that taking out tonsils was no longer done preemptively. My mother had hers out in the 1920s. Taking out tonsils was more or less routine for a time. Not sure if it was considered a revenue generator. And ether? You were given ether? I am astonished.
They were still using ether up until somewhere around the mid-1960's in the USA. It fell out of favor when less risky alternatives replaced it.
My goodness! I’m 75, and I know my pediatrician told my mother that taking out tonsils was no longer done preemptively. My mother had hers out in the 1920s. Taking out tonsils was more or less routine for a time. Not sure if it was considered a revenue generator. And ether? You were given ether? I am astonished.
I remember my two sisters got their tonsils out in the early 1950's, they would have been ages 3 and 5 at the time. IIRC they had had several bouts of tonsillitis and as I understand it from the perspective of my 6 yr old mind at the time, their tonsils were believed to be permanently enlarged as evidenced by their chronic mouth breathing. As I recall they did use ether as the anesthetic, it made them sick ( nauseated and vomiting) and the poor kids reeked of it when they came home the day following surgery. They did get to eat all the popsicles they wanted, though.
My brother and I missed the "getting our tonsils out" bandwagon.
...The doctor doesn't want to be the one to kill him. He doesn't want to take the chance that it will look bad on his record. ...
Sorry, I haven't read the rest of this thread, or even finished that post. I felt compelled to remind everybody of The Prime Directive of the practice of medicine that has been in effect for 2500 yrs-- Primum Non Nocere-- First, Do No Harm.
BTW- the risk of any surgery is basically the risk of anesthesia-- roughly 1 bad outcome in every 10,000 cases....Comorbidities like severe heart, lung, kidney, liver or metabolic problems iincrease that risk...Obesity increases risk because most anesthetics are fat soluble, so larger doses are required to achieve adequate effects, therefore they take longer to come back out of the system.
I remember my two sisters got their tonsils out in the early 1950's, they would have been ages 3 and 5 at the time. IIRC they had had several bouts of tonsillitis and as I understand it from the perspective of my 6 yr old mind at the time, their tonsils were believed to be permanently enlarged as evidenced by their chronic mouth breathing. As I recall they did use ether as the anesthetic, it made them sick ( nauseated and vomiting) and the poor kids reeked of it when they came home the day following surgery. They did get to eat all the popsicles they wanted, though.
My brother and I missed the "getting our tonsils out" bandwagon.
With several bouts of tonsillitis behind them, it does not sound as if your siblings tonsils were removed preemptively. They were removed for a reason.
Stuff like this goes in cycles. Do kids still get tubes inserted in their ears? For awhile this was quite common.
S....Obesity increases risk because most anesthetics are fat soluble, so larger doses are required to achieve adequate effects, therefore they take longer to come back out of the system.
That's interesting. Yet another reason not to be obese.
A friend of mine recently told me about a bad experience she had with gum surgery.
Local doctor insisted on using general anesthesia because "that's the way I do it". He acknowledged that she could travel south and have the work done another way, without general.
She felt really drugged out for three days afterwards, enough so that her husband was quite concerned. Additionally, the surgery was not satisfactory for her, so a thorougly unpleasant experience. She's quite lean, by the way.
I would be very leery about allowing anyone other than an experienced and specialized anesthesiologist to "knock me out".
consents are written to a level that most of the population can easily understand.
from your reply I'd guess you've never read one but signed it without objection when asked.
I'd even venture a guess that the joint commission has some standard that addresses, in some way, that consents and similar need to be written to a certain reading level or similar although I can't recall one offhand
I was 33 years old and very naïve when I signed the consent form for a total hysterectomy with "possible" removal of both ovaries for endometriosis. I went for several second and third opinions and all pointed toward hysterectomy as the solution. I had only tried Lupron (with horrid side effects), some hormone therapies and just managing pain. I could not get one surgeon to just remove any endometriosis lesions in my pelvic area. Because I did not want children, I was pressured to have the hysterectomy. I really did not want it but I saw no other option and I was missing work and in pain.
I was not prepared for what surgical menopause would be like. I have had many complications in the 17 years since this surgery, not necessarily from the surgery itself (though I only found out six weeks after the surgery he did an episiotomy on me to get my uterus out because I was so small down there, and I am childless so never experienced birth). But from the effects of losing my ovaries. Most Ob/Gyns will not go into detail about what the effects of immediate surgical menopause are, with or without HRT (I was given HRT right out of surgery and have been on it almost the entire time). No one prepared me for not only the constant hot flashes and night sweats, but the profound fatigue, joint and muscle pain, eventual vaginal dryness and atrophy, shrinking breasts (I was small to begin with), rapid decline in bone density, mood swings and crying spells, brain fog and memory loss, shift in body fat more to middle, changes in metabolism, dry eyes and the list goes on. After 15 years of being on HRT doctors begin to pressure you go come off completely due to risk of cancer. I can not function without HRT. I have no ovaries, no natural hormones trickling through my body. HRT is literally my lifeline. Diet, exercise and supplements are great and I use them all regularly, but they can not replace what my ovaries did for me.
I read my op report and path report later and discovered my ovaries were completely healthy, absolutely nothing wrong with them. They were removed because they "fed" the endometriosis with hormones, yet he slapped me with HRT right out of surgery. It makes no sense. I had yet another surgery one year post removal of all my reproductive organs with another surgeon to remove more endometriosis he left behind on my bladder and pelvic region (he made no effort to remove a single endometriosis lesion when he took my reproductive parts), plus removal of adhesions that were all causing continued pain. If I could go back knowing what I know now I would have gone totally outside the system and searched for a different provider willing to trying something else. At least I "fired" my ob/gyn shortly after the hysterectomy since he was so completely clueless on how to manage my hormone problems that were so profound I had to step down to part time work for seven years until I finally got it all sorted out and could function again. He also assumed my continued pain was in my head. Sighs.
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