the tronsil affair

The tonsil affair

By David Verveer

Today it is my turn to baby-sit on my grandson, who had his tonsils removed last week. He is 8 years old, and not the complaining type, but you can see it really hurts him when he swallows or tries to eat something.

In order to prevent his catching an unwelcome virus of his classmates, we keep him home until after the Sukkoth holydays, thus taking turns in keeping him company during these, for him, long lasting and painful days. I do remember when they did the same thing to me, recently (only 60 years ago), and seeing his face when he swallows, reminds me of the nagging pain, which goes from the ears to the throat. I really pity him, but can't help him. It seems to be the price we pay in growing up.

He is only allowed to eat un-heated food, including ice-cream, but his favorite dishes of chips (French fries) with snitzel and fresh cucumbers is much too painful. He eats this pudding and cream things which children eat nowadays, but with that he remains hungry. I took him with the car to a restaurant in the center of the neighborhood, and passed by his school, there his school mates were outside doing sport, and he was really jealous of them. On the way back, I took another route, without seeing the school. In the restaurant he ordered a croissant, from which he consumed the soft inner part, which on itself was apparently a painful affair.

Now we are back home, he lies in front of his TV and looks at a children program, and I try to fix the computers in my daughter's house, by cleaning them, scanning them and installing new preventive software, a job which takes much time and is rather boring, but is definitely my responsibility, as my daughter and kids do not have sufficient patience to perform these tasks, which one has to do every so often, or else the computers slow down to stand still, due to trash and other slowing software. The worst enemies are the games, which not only take up enormous amounts of memory, but also interfere with the basic software performance, which are essential for running the computer.

In the mean time being away from work, makes them apparently realize how important I am, as every five minutes somebody phones me with questions such as, where, why, what and when, but that seems to go with the function of project manager (or is it a sign that I don't manage very well, as with a good manager in his absence, everything should go smooth).

But now my big question, why do people have tonsils, if they have to be taken out, what is their function? Is it like the appendix, a simple construction mistake, or like the tail bone, something the human body doesn't need anymore? And if we mention unnecessary parts, why are we circumcised, doesn't this skin have a function, why do we torture the new born with a medical operation? I learned that our first trauma comes from the cruelty we encounter with the age of 8 days old, many follow after that, especially kids with Jewish mothers and grand mothers. Yes Savta (grandmother), I took the medicines, waited for a grown-up to cross the road, and did my homework. Savta, not now, I am busy!