As a child, I had strep throat almost constantly. It was like having a large lump in my throat that felt raw and when I swallowed it felt like it rolled around like a ball. The doctor told my mother I had to have my tonsils removed to stop it. I had never been in the hospital before and never had any kind of surgery. I was seven years old and didn’t understand what tonsils were and how they were going to take mine out.

The day before, my mother told me that I had to go the next morning and the doctor was going to take out my tonsils. She said that I would be sleeping the whole time and I wouldn’t feel it.

The next morning, my mother woke me up early. She said I was going to wear my pajamas. The only other place I ever got to wear my pajamas was when we went to the drive-in theater. We went into a hospital room where they told me I could wait. My mother sat with me knowing I was scared because I didn’t know what they were going to do. The nurse came in and gave me a shot and it made me sleepy but I was still awake. This man came in with a bed on wheels and told me to lay on it. I was freezing, I don’t know if it was because I was scared or that I was cold. The man pushed me down the hall while my mother stayed behind. I can remember as the man pushed me through white double doors I thought about Frankenstein and that’s the last thing I remember.

When I woke up I was back in the hospital room and my throat was sore. A nurse came in and gave me a small container of ice cream but my throat was too sore to eat it. Then the doctor came in and told my mother what I could and couldn’t eat for a while. Then we went home. At first I thought, “Wow! This is going to be great! I can eat all the ice cream I want and I’m allowed to mash up my food before I eat it.”

At the time, my favorite food was a cereal called, “Crispy Critters” It was like animal crackers, and I loved it. My mother told me I couldn’t eat any of that for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t any of my favorite cereal. One day, I snuck into the kitchen and ate a bowl of Crispy Critters. That didn’t hurt! I thought, “Mom will never know”.

That night though, I woke up spitting up blood and my throat was hurting. I went into my mom’s bedroom and couldn’t say anything because it was bleeding so badly. She woke up and immediately knew. She asked me, “Did you eat some Crispy Critters?” I said, “Yes.”

She took me to the emergency room where they got the bleeding stopped and said I had to stay the night. They put me in a room with three teen-age girls who had also had their tonsils removed. They were having a harder time with it than I was and the doctor said it was because they were older than I was. They brought me milk and Jell-O for breakfast and my mother showed up afterwards to take me back home.

After that, I only ate what my mother said I could. In a couple of weeks, I was able to eat my Crispy Critters again. I also have not had strep throat since, which to me is a blessing.