I had managed to dodge the coughs and colds during this unusually warm Antipodean Winter until this week. My throat feels like I’ve been gargling with broken glass. The last time my throat felt like this I was 10 years old. I remember waking up lying on my back, unable to move anything but my head as I was pinned down in bed by well tucked in stiff, crunchy sheets and blankets.
I opened my eyes a fraction, the ceiling seemed so far away, the highest I’d ever seen. When I turned my head to the right a marble fireplace against brown and cream walls came into view. I could hear the sound of hard soled shoes slapping and squeaking on a highly polished brown Lino floor. To my left and opposite there were other beds in the room and the murmur of people talking in hushed tones. My throat was so sore that it hurt to speak, relief came in the form of a nurse telling me that I needed to eat ice cream and jelly for tea and cornflakes for breakfast.
Having tonsils removed is now a day procedure, for me back in 1973 it involved three days stay in the Birmingham and Midland Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. A grand Victorian red brick and terracotta tile building in Edmund Street. The Grade II listed building built 1890-91, by Jethro Cossins & Peacock in a classical “Queen Anne” style opened as a hospital in 1891 and closed in 1989.
The image is the front of a card from my family during my stay in hospital.
References:
Birmingham Roundabout
The Victorian Society – Brimingham
Go Historic
theINFP 
I hope you are on the mend soon. I have to say, the card is very cute!
Much better this morning, thank you for your comment 🙂
I am happy to hear that! 🙂
hope you feel better soon, and what a vivid memory
Much better this morning, thank you for your comment 🙂
When you speak about those highly polished lino floors it takes me back to our hospitals – thing. I remember a kind of a vision, I call it that because of the sun shining on the floor, of a sister walking towards us almost translucent. She was wearing one of those white longish veils (is that what you call it) that they don’t wear any more. Never forgotten that. Strength and health to you.
I agree even now hospitals seem such an alien environment coupled with the myriad of emotions that kick in depending on the reason for the visit. Thank you Don.
Thanks for sharing the memory, Robert. I, too, had my tonsils removed old-school (in 1966). Although I was just at the wee age of five at the time, I have some isolate, but extremely vivid memories, of the sometimes traumatic process. Peace.
Thanks a bunch for sharing, Robert. I, too, had my tonsils removed old-school (in 1966). Although I was just at the wee age of five at the time, I have some isolated, but extremely vivid memories of the traumatic process. Peace.
I’m pleased you are part of the tonsil-less group Peter 🙂