Thursday, April 10, 2008

Tales from the Crypt

At the risk of offending, I'd like to say a few words about all of the interesting stuff we collect in our heads. I've heard the sinus cavity referred to as a crumple zone-all that room in there to cushion the important stuff-and thought it an apt description. The first time I used a neti pot I was impressed. And of course, before you even get to the sinuses there are ears that can collect truly fantastic amounts of wax. My newest "weird head stuff" discovery is tonsilloliths. Should you not desire to head to wikipedia to read about them, they are stuff that can get stuck in your tonsils (crevices known as crypts) and calcify. Think pearls, except irregular in shape and potentially stinky.

I learned about these things after feeling like I had something scratchy stuck in my throat. On further examination I discovered that my right tonsil was humongous and had white things sticking out of it. Ewwwwwwww. But you know, I'm not as "ewww" prone as I used to be and this was just plain interesting. My doc confirmed that these things aren't harmful and will come and go so I'm not worried about 'em. Gentle and frequent care and cleaning has done wonders and my right tonsil is now only visibly about 4 times bigger than the left. I'm thinking that as some of those crypts have time to shrink back to their regular sizes the rest of the tonsil will get back to normal.

Our heads-containers for more than just braaaaaaiiiiiins.

1 comment:

Roni said...

Wait till you cough one of those buggers out. Talk about ewww, but truly interesting to look at and dissect.