Vacation blues: Sammy gets tonsils removed

By K.J. Cardinal

Is there a worse way to spend your eighth-grade February vacation than having a tonsillectomy? I doubt it.

Eighth grade is usually the last time you can truly act like a kid without having people judge you for your childish ways...and now Sammy's last February vacation in her age of innocence will be spent recovering from a tonsillectomy. This isn't the way it's supposed to go down.

Sammy's supposed to spend her last REAL February vacation sleeping in, watching cartoons all day, enjoying her little sister, playing with those toys in the basement that she has forgotten about and doing fun things everyday...like indoor mini golf. She's not supposed to be laid up in bed, feeling like someone just jammed an auger down her throat. It's really unfair.

This morning Sammy and Angie went to Surgical Care Center in Worcester where Dr. Ralph Iannuzzi performed a tonsillectomy on Sammy. Her appointment was for 9:15 a.m and the actual surgery only lasted 20 minutes, but she didn't leave the hospital until around 2:15 p.m.

So as you can see, not an ideal way to spend your eighth-grade February vacation. At least Sammy gets to eat jello, popsicles and sherbert all day long. Probably seems like a treat at first, but after a day or two, I'm sure she'll be craving some real food. This actually reminds me of the Carnival Cruise that Angie, Sammy and I took back during Sammy's April vacation in 2005.

While aboard the Elation, I bet Sammy that she couldn't go all day eating just soft serve ice cream from the cafeteria. Naturally, Sammy loved the notion of eating ice cream all day long (and Angie being OK with it), so she jumped at the challenge. About six hours and 10 or 12 ice cream cones later, Sammy wasn't feeling so hot and was begging me to let her have some "real" food. I'm sure this is how she will be feeling come tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, last night Angie told Sammy that for her "last supper" before surgery, she could have whatever she wanted for dinner. I was very flattered when Sammy chose the chicken fingers that I have perfected over the last few months as her dinner of choice...and this is something that I will obviously never let Angie live down.

Between indoor mini golf and chicken tenders, it was a good day for Sammy, but definitely not good enough to make up for the week that lies ahead for her.

So, Sammy's eighth-grade February vacation will be one to remember, but not for those memorable reasons like most kids. At least we have a week trip to our timeshare in New Hampshire, Steele Hill Resort, planned for Sammy's April vacation. We'll be sure that she really goes out with a bang on her final eighth-grade vacation to make up for this week.