About my sore throat when swallowing

[iciprincess]

I had a cold a week or two ago which I think has now turned into tonsillitis, but I can't see any white spots.

I take drugs that suppress my immune system so I sometimes take longer to get over infections.

Anyhow. The last 2 days, it's pretty painful when I swallow- unless I'm dosed up on painkillers.

I feel fine in myself, thankfully. It's just very painful when the painkillers wear off. They wore off in the night and it was extremely sore.

I'm still able to keep within the recommended dose for 24 hours, just about though.

I have Diflam spray as well that I will use today.

Anyhow, how is it likely to progress, does anyone know ? Stupid question isn't it. I really don't want to take antibiotics for it.

Any advice ?

Can't say how it will progress..... but I used to get that quite a bit - felt super painful (eye watering!) to swallow.
difflam spray helped
as did gargling with (and then swallowing) aspirin
and gargling with warm salt water in between.
hope you feel better soon

It can be extremely painful. I'm ok right now, it's just about manageable with painkillers but I remember a couple of times I've had this- it was so painful and painkillers didn't help and I literally couldn't sleep at all. It was hell. I'm always worried when I feel like this, that I'll end up like that again.

People always tell me to gargle with saltwater when I have a sore throat but I never did. Recently I had an incredibly sore throat though that was waking me up in the night so I tried it and it was amazing. Really did give some instant relief that lasted a while. NHS website has instructions for quantities. It was a weird one as it was so painful but I otherwise felt fine in myself.

It doesn't sound like tonsillitis. I'd expect other symptoms, fever for example, if it was. Impossible to say whether it will progress. For now just carry on with the pain relief but do seek help if it gets worse, particularly if you start to struggle to swallow. I've seen tonsillitis patients who can't even swallow their own saliva. It does need to be treated if it gets near that point.

i know it's easier said than done but try not to worry about what might happen. If it gets to the point that you are not sleeping because of the pain - you probably do need to go to the docs?
it might not get that bad.
if you can't sleep, do something else. I had an op a couple of years ago which made it very difficult to sleep. The more anxious you are about not sleeping the worse it is! Read, watch a film (preferably something you've seen so it's familiar to you!) .... or I used to stream episodes of anything with prof brian cox and the universe because I find his voice very soporific!

If you have immune issues and / or are on immunosuppressive drugs you may actually have thrush which can present like this - even if you don’t have the typical white coating, it’s fairly common alongside a virus if you’re on immunosuppressive meds. Ideally you need medical advice. If it is oral thrush you can get medication for it.

Ah I've had tonsillitis many times with no fever at all. Sometimes I get one, but most of the time, I don't.

Id probably get it checked out. As an asthmatic I get that when I'm on prednisolone to help control asthma it works by reducing my immune so takes longer to get better/will catch everything else around (thanks to people for not covering mouths etc anymore)

However it's about knowing when to get help or advice. No tonsillitis will be the same twice.

My DP has had tonsillitis a few times. Last year he went from a bit of a sore throat to not being able to swallow his own saliva in just over 12hrs. Turned out he had the start of quincy. So if it's that painful...get it checked. Quincy was terrifying to watch someone with and I know it freaked my DP out a lot. The absess can appear without warning and he didn't even realise he had an abscess due to location.