AIBU to not leave the GP without antibiotics

Like pp's I'd wonder about Quinsy which can make you very ill. Even hospitalise you.

Have you pushed to see an ENT specialist OP? Maybe your tonsils need to come out. After you're better from this obviously.

Anyway, you need to get some treatment.

I’ve had quinsy 13 times. Go straight to A&E and have it aspirated by ENT doctors. They will give you an IV steroid, penicillin and metronidazole. It will take about a week to feel better in any way! Hope you’re okay x

You don’t know they will say it’s viral- white patches usually indicates bacterial and I’ve never had to fight for antibiotics in this instance it’s just been immediately prescribed

Why wait a couple of hours when you could go to the pharmacist.

You would def not be unreasonable to ask the GP for a sustainable solution if you keep getting tonsillitis so often and so badly.

Meanwhile, at the hint of a sore throat or sniffle I recommend gargling with dilute TCP

Gargling soluble aspirin is also great (for some reason soluble paracetamol and ibuprofen don't seem to work quite as well).

Seriously if you cannot drink it sounds like quinsy and you do need to be seen today. Google it. Good luck and try your best to get them removed soon.

So you haven't had a consultation yet and you think you won't get antibiotics when you do? Catastrophising is not good.

Do your local pharmacies have a sore throat scheme where they do a consultation, throat swab and antibiotics if needed?

Can you actually not swallow though? I mean if you were to be given a glass of water you'd be unable to drink it? Because if that's true then that's a goto A&E problem. For one thing it means a gp would be unable to prescribe you antibiotics because you wouldn't be able to swallow them. But also oral antibiotics even if they were absolutely needed and your body was not able to fight the infection will not typically show any benefit/improvement until day 2-3, by which point you'll have a kidney injury from dehydration.

But if you are able to swallow, despite having said you can't, then all this achieves is 'professional disbelief' of your account. I.e. it's evidence that you lie and exagegerate the severity of your symptoms to push clinicians to provide a particular treatment. This really isn't a position you want to get into, have clinicians seeing in the future. Always describe your symptoms as accurately as you can.

Some of you clearly haven't been victims of repeated medical gaslighting and withholding of proper investigation and treatment. It's very common among women.

Why wait just go to the pharmacy? Our pharmacy prescribed DS antibiotics for tonsillitis a few months ago, you can call or walk in with our local one just make sure it's a prescribing pharmacy (Google)

That's cheery news for her :(

Don't want to worry you, but my DB finally had his tonsils removed in his 50s after bouts of sever tonsillitis and they discovered that the reason for his symptoms was cancer of the tonsils. He is clear and symptom free now, a couple of years later, after chemo and radiotherapy.

Most sore throats are viral, but doctors should use a system called the Feverpain score to help them decide, as it can be tricky and we know antibiotics are overused. Google it. I’m fairly sure you’ll be in the antibiotics category.

I was just about to mention quinsy!

Yes, that's dangerous.

But as someone with a history of tonsillitis I know there is a difference between it being agony to swallow and not being able to at all.

As a child when I had tonsillitis I used to hallucinate as my temp got so high.

I do suggest OP that you ask for a referral to an ENT consultant and consider having your tonsils out. I decided not to - there are pros and cons- but in my late 20s I was losing a lot of time off work with tonsillitis.

It is a horrible thing.

Google your nearest walk in centre. In the mean time benzoate type local anaesthetic throat spray is super helpful

If you really truly can't swallow then it could be quinsy, which is an A&E job. Scroll down to the bottom of this link to see if your symptoms fit:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tonsillitis/

I'm sorry you are in so much pain but are you really unable to swallow?

If you agree with your statement that the Dr knows best, then by default no don't demand antibiotics.... just because its "bad" doesn't make it bacterial....covid is viral, that's bad too. If antibiotics are warranted then they will be given but we have a moral duty to not encourage antibotic resistance by unnecessary prescribing

Explain your symptoms, let the gp decide how to treat you.

Dont "demand" anything, Drs deserve decent manners too

Thankfully in anaesthetics I'm yet to suffer from patients demanding the method in which I keep them asleep (even if most don't think we are drs in the first place)

You can't insist on being given any meds if your GP feels they are not right for you.

I do know how painful this is.

The only way to find out if it's bacterial is to take a swab.
White spots show an infection but viruses cause infections!

Did your GP suggest mouth gargling with soluble aspirin to take down the inflammation? That's one of the best things.

Other posters who have mentioned the dangers of using ABs when not needed are spot-on.

Have you never been offered a tonsillectomy? If you have had tonsillitis 100 times then you should have perhaps had your tonsils out. I was offered the op in my late 20s as I got tonsillitis 2 - 3 times a year. I didn't proceed but it's something you should consider.

I definitely sympathise because sore throats are genuinely awful. But it does sound like you've presented several times to gp with sore throat and been told you didn't meet criteria for antibiotics, you've presumable recovered from each episode previously so GP was correct in that you didn't need antibiotics to get better.

It's not just antibiotics resistance, they cause lots of side effects and damage to gut health, the extent of which isn't really fully understood yet - from chronic pain ibs/like conditions, nutritional disorders, mental health conditions, you really don't want antibiotics unless there's going to be a significant benefit in taking them.

See if you can switch GP practices. If you can’t get through ring out of hours or go to a walk in centre.

If you do get to see them, get them to score you on the centor criteria or fever pain score regarding if you need antibiotics or not! It’s the scoring system the NHS use for whether you meet the threshold for antibiotics for tonsillitis. Obviously make sure they rule out potential other causes to ensure the antibiotics are correct.

It does sound like you'll probably meet the criteria for antibiotics, however that being said it is worth noting that in all the studies antibiotics in tonsillitis very rarely make any difference at all in severity of symptoms or duration of infection. The measures that make a difference to symptoms are regular use of paracetamol and ibuprofen (if these are medications you can take), salt water gargle, pharmacy can issue difflam spray which has a slight numbing effect.

What tends to happen with tonsillitis is most have a big improvement/resolution day 7-10 without any abx, people tend to present about day 2-4, so if they're issued a 5 day course of treatment they're improving over the course and better at completion so they believe the abx has worked. People swear they know their body xyz but in trials the placebo is as effective as antibiotics even for bacterial.

Again that being said, the difficulty opening your mouth you describe its absolutely worth to goto gp, that's not typical in tonsillitis (normal pain/severe pain on swallow), it can be a sign of abcess/quinsy which needs draining.

I use hydrogen peroxide on a cold sore if that helps anyone 😂