Misery

[judecorp]

I'm having a major tonsil issue right now, and it sucks.

Of course it happened when it did because it was a holiday weekend and I would have to just suffer through it. I ate no Easter dinner and slept on my grandparents' guest bed the whole time because I was so miserable. It is likely my grandfather's last family holiday and even though I was there, I missed it.

I went to my PCP this afternoon and of course I have no strep, and she gave me antibiotics. I usually take clindamycin for my tonsil issue but it is hardcore and she always tries to talk me out of it and take something less "big." Today she was really pushing the azithromycin which hasn't really worked for me in the past, but I just wasn't up to arguing.

I took my two pills this afternoon and I am just so swollen and in so much pain. It's making my teeth hurt and my ear hurt and it's just awful. I have a really high pain tolerance and am alternating tylenol and ibuprofen on this one (which I have never done). I took tylenol at 4, ibuprofen at 6 (max doses on each) and I am just sitting here begging for 10pm to come so I can take more tylenol and hopefully get a little let-up.

It is now getting so swollen that it's making me cough because my body thinks there's something stuck in my throat. I don't even know what to do. It's misery.

We have vicodin in the house which I would consider taking if 1) it didn't make me puke and 2) I didn't have to take a drug test for my new job on Wednesday. Oof.

Comments

[skatured.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this helps in anyway. I had a coworker a few years back who was having bad tonsil issues too. One day she told me that she was poking it with a q-tip. Yes, poking it with a q-tip -- she said that she did that a lot to help relieve the pressure. This one time she did it though the tonsil burst, but she said she felt better afterward. Even if there was a disgusting amount of puss and blood that she said she collected and put into a baggy to bring to the doctor to have analyzed. (The doctor said they they didn't want it).

I've had bad tonsillitis too -- it does suck -- I hope you feel better tomorrow or that the antibiotics help this time.

[oddharmonic.livejournal.com]

This sounds a lot like the time I had an abscessed molar, only my then-boyfriend kept trying to get my to poke it with a q-tip dipped in clove oil to ease the pain. Once it drained I felt SO much better.

[violane.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sounds horrid. Shrink, evil tonsil, shrink!!

[bloomchen.livejournal.com]

As much as it may suck, it may be time to get a tonsillectomy, or if not that, an infectious diseases specialist. I had a recurring infection in my arm that I had broken, and I went to a specialist and he was the first one smart enough to ask what exactly was causing the recurring infection, and didn't just give me random antibiotics.
And if your tonsil is that painful, you definitely need stronger antibiotics. I know there's a justifiable backlash against just handing out antibiotics, but in this case it sounds like you are having antibiotic rebounding...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I have been trying to get a tonsillectomy for several years. The ENT I had been seeing said he would not do a tonsillectomy unless you have 4+ incidents per year, and I have been having 3 typically. I saw a second ENT once, same thing. After this incident, though, he wants to take them out.

Whee.

[bloomchen.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a good thing, right? Sounds like they're doing much more harm than good, and making you wait to have four infections a year seems kind of harsh. I guess with managed care there has to be some sort of protocol, though.

I must have had a different kind of ENT because he told me with the "size of my tonsils" if I ever felt I needed to, he would be willing to take mine out (and mine don't get inflamed constantly, they're just HUGE). He just told me it would hurt like hell so I should really think it over first. So for now they stay. They should have been taken out when I was a kid, but my mom said when I was little there was a backlash against taking any tonsils out [at least where we were living at the time], except in extreme circumstances (my mom had hers out as a kid, as did every other kid she knew, pretty much automatically).

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have always put it off because of the long recovery time for adults (2+ weeks). I am already nervous about trying to fit it in with the start of a new job, so I am going to seriously chat with the ENT about the possibility of postponing a while if the new job is freaking about having so much time off in the beginning.

I know they are reluctant to take them out willy-nilly with kids now because it is part of the immune system and you might need them, but honestly, now I think they are TOO conservative with the tonsils. I wish I had gotten mine out a long time ago.

xo

[sassywoman.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. :( Wish I had some magic pills to send you.

[growinginwonder.livejournal.com]

Warm salt water, which you probably already knew. And clindamycin is the devil. I hope the other stuff works for you.

[mtgirl.livejournal.com]

I think they need to just roll you down the hall way to one of those sunny, bright Children's Hospital rooms and give you Popsicle and something to make you sleep and just fix the tonsil issue in some magical way. I'm so sorry to hear about that. It's so hard to be sick when you're a mom and about to start a new job and everything else...