Why did God invent tonsils?

This was a question that Jack asked me yesterday and I had no answer. We don't know why God invented them but we do know they need to go. Yesterday John had surgery to remove his tonsils, uvula, part of his palate and straighten his nasal septum. Ouch. He will be down and out for at least ten days. Jack is scheduled to get his tonsils and adenoids out at the end of September and if I had my way, we would take Abe's out right now too.

Here is a picture of my patient right after surgery. He was on Demerol, Morphine and Lortab so he was pretty out of it. Now he is healing up but in a lot of pain. His parents took Abe for the day and Jack is at school so I am doting on him with my undivided attention. Its going to be a long recovery but it will be so worth it if he can sleep without his breathing stopping or go through flu season without getting strep throat.

This surgery has been long overdue. He has sleep apnea and he has chronic tonsillitis. The surgeon said that his tonsils were deeply rooted with infection and obviously had been for probably the past 30 years. In addition to the giant chronically infected tonsils, he had an anatomically low palate and a crooked septum. Any one of these things in likely to cause major sleep and breathing problems. I don't want to get my hopes up too much but this surgery could be a magic bullet to solve a lot of problems. The recovery is hellish but with the help of otter pops and narcotics he will get through it.