How About Ice Cream Without the Tonsillectomy?

We Keep Wanting More Care Without Knowing If It's Better Care

In 1981, I was 7, in love with Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” and so sick and sweaty and miserable that I woke myself from sleep in tears. When my mom asked me what was wrong, I told her my throat hurt—but “my other throat.” That was my best effort to describe the swollen, inflamed, and painful experience of having tonsillitis. After days of this, my mom had had enough. She bundled me up and drove me 45 minutes to the closest Kaiser clinic.

We reached Kaiser, I had my vitals tested, …