Extreme fatigue post infection

[Worried25]

I have had two pretty awful bouts of bacterial tonsillitis very recently, I was really ill but the second round of antibiotics seem to have cleared it. I finished them at the weekend.
The thing is I feel completely fatigued and extremely tired. I literally have no energy, I’ve never felt like this before. Could this be a post infection fatigue , I have thought maybe glandular fever but that’s viral and I definitely had a bacterial infection. Could you get both at the same time? I’m struggling to function and I have to as have dcs and a job etc. Anyone have any experience of this?

Bump

Hi @Worried25 - I’ve had exactly the same thing ( actually 4 bouts of very bad tonsillitis since November!).

I still am feeling extremely fatigued - as in my whole body feels exhausted rather than just very tired if that makes sense. Starting to feel slightly better this week.

I saw my GP who ran some bloods, but her initial thought was that it was post viral fatigue ( even though the tonsillitis was bacterial you’ve usually had a virus to start with)

4 bouts sounds very tough going bighouse, have you any conclusions re the blood tests?
Yeah weirdly my dc had exactly the same , 2 bad bouts of tonsillitis were antibiotics improved it greatly after 24 hours but then a viral illness post tonsillitis but didn’t last more than a week.
I’ve honestly never felt this weak and exhausted in my life and it’s just worrying as I have a lot on but find it hard to put one foot in front of the other..

As the mother of a DD with ME (CFS) my advice is to rest. If you're fatigued after a nasty virus, it's because your body still needs to recuperate. Ask your GP to sign you off with Post viral fatigue and rest up. It'll be worth it in the long term.

You might also find that you'll struggle with future viruses and they'll leave you more fatigued than they did before. Just listen to what your body needs and don't ignore it.

That’s great advice Bonnes. I lobe running and keep thinking I must get back into it as it’s been three weeks but everything in my body is just saying noooo so will listen to it.
I’m freelance so only get paid for contracted hours but it’s a job where I can work sitting down in front of a computer , it’s the managing 3 energetic ds I’m struggling with more!
Just hope it’s nothing more serious and will pass. It’s just hard to rest with small dcs.

A friend of mine has been feeling achey and awful for a long time after a bout of illness. She’s had multiple tests to get to the bottom of it, with nothing substantial found. Her Gp has put her on a low dose of fluoxetine and she has found she feels better for it - might be worth q chat with your doctor?

Ok , that’s interesting. Will definitely be going back if this doesn’t improve in a week or so. Really good advice. The lack of energy just feels weird for me. Would love to be able to go back to bed for a day. Last night I was up with my youngest a couple of times so that is not helping..

I had shingles then an infection then flu .. I could hardly function afterwards . It took a month ( while working full time ) to start to feel my energy levels pick up I felt like I wanted to crawl rather than walk
So
Lots of rest , if you can , eat well , all the normal stuff

I’ve never had this post tonsillitis before that I can remember so high find it unsettling. I’ll get bloods done again if it doesn’t improve.

Adults don’t bounce back as well as kids, one day you don’t get over an illness and you realise you are not 21 anymore .

Took me about 4 weeks to get over my last tonsillitis.

You can get tonsillitis on top of glandular fever. I did in January and have been off work ever since 😩. Was starting to contemplate going back to work a couple of weeks ago when I got proper flu and it's completely floored me again. No idea when I'm going to be well enough to go back

What antibiotics did you have?

Echoing what Bonnes said as someone with me/cfs. Please rest for much longer than you feel you need to.

That goes for emotional and mental energy too. Take a step back until you're well again.

Your body has been working really hard to clear an infection so it's bound to take it out of you. Plenty of rest, good nutrition and lots of fluids. Hopefully you will feel more like yourself soon xxxxxxxx

Probiotic yoghurt or supplement

Supplement vit D (everyone should in this country), zinc and magnesium.

Thanks for all the great points. I had to take klacid in the end to clear it. I had a swap taken and it was definitely bacterial tonsillitis. I read afterwards that klacid has some awful side effects and it really did, I felt very fatigued on them but I’ve been off them for around 4 days now.. it maybe it’s still in the system. I taking probiotics tablets and vit d, magnesium and iron for anemia. Definitely hear you on the getting older part, am early 30’s but don’t remember it taking this long to recover in my 20’s !