I had mine out when I was 24. I'd had chronic tonsillitis throughout my childhood. I finally got the mother-of-all-throat-infections. The DOC nailed the infection with a bazooka antibiotic (since I'd become basically immune to all the other stuff because I'd taken so much in my earlier years), then put me in for a tonsilectomy.
It was done under a local: I was awake and watching the whole thing in the Doc's head reflector. "First we do the lateral suspensory ligament *snip*.... then the inferior *snip* then we put a lariat around the tonsil, so it doesn't slide back down your throat.....then the superior....a little extra tissue...*snip**snip*......repeat for the other side...
The whole procedure had me in the OR for MAYBE 20 minutes, tops...
When he pulled the tonsil, if felt like when you half-swallow a strand of speghetti, then pulll it out...
Got 150 Demeral/75 Visterol and Atropine for pre-op meds, A KVO IV of Normal Saline for an emergency line, and a shot of aerosol Cocaine to deaden my throat.
Ice Cream for lunch (after the Coke wore off), Jello and soft stuff for dinner, discharged the next morning ..... and a Whopper for lunch ... well, one bite of a Whopper...then soft *non-salty* stuff for lunch, dinner, breakfast for a few days......
You usually get a anti-nausea drug too. You end up swallowing a fair amount of blood, and that upsets some peoples stomachs.
Get it done. It nowhere near the hassle of antibiotics, it keeps you from building a tolerance to antibiotics, and you'll never spit up another little white pus-pill ......
.02
Scott