Aaargh recurring tonsillitis!! What can I do to prevent it?

[Justshabbynochic]

So this is about my 6th time to get it this year. I'm currently under the duvet with chills, dizzy spells, and feels like I'm swallowing razorblades.

I don't think it's enough for a tonsillectomy and I don't want one if given the choice anyway!

I have 4 DC to look after so please if anyone knows of a lifestyle/dietary/supplement/homeopathic tip they can give me to get rid and stay gone, I would very much appreciate it!

I gargle with with colloidal silver and regularly take manuka honey n hot water x

Thanks for replying...I have the manuka honey so will try that tonight! And will get the other from a health food shop (?) tomorrow. I just keep getting the standard amoxicillan every time I go to GP with no advice on prevention.

you can't really prevent. except tiredness and stress make mine more likely to go. rest up properly so the antibiotics can do there job

no not enough for a tonsillectomy. 10 I was told

Yes it's always when I'm stressed. I'm glad I'm not getting it often enough for surgery...I heard it's horrendous for adults to recover from!

Thanks for replies.

oh I'm the opposite I was begging to have them out! GP referred hospital wouldn't

I had mine out. Yes the recovery was awful but it was so very worth it.

Aww that's shit...it should be your choice really...no one
else has to put up with trying to fight off a serious infection multiple times a year!

My DH suffered with tonsillitis until he had his wisdom teeth extracted. Might be a red herring with you but it was certainly linked with him.

Apparently changing your toothbrush is supposed to help prevent re infecting yourself.

And vitamin C, high doses such as 1000mg daily, is supposed to shorten length of infections such as chest infections so would be reasonable to hope it would also make a difference with ENT illnesses. Vitamin C even help prevent episodes, not just shorten it if you have it. A recent study showed it was as much as an 80% difference.

I've found that gargling with proper corsodyl helps stave it off. I try and do it now and again anyway but any time I get so much as a tickly throat I do it for a few days. Touch wood it's worked so far

I try and sleep well and eat well and exercise so I don't fall sick to begin with, stress and being overly tired causes mine to flare up, I also take super strength vitamin C with zinc and try and keep my face covered in winter so I don't breathe in cold air too much.

But when I feel a bout coming on I go straight to the doctors as it just goes completely insane if I try to ignore it, the last episode had to be treated with penicilin and ended up with me suffering from severe ocular migraines in reaction to having left it untreated for so long (apparently my body parts get migraines! )

Gosh I'm a bit worried this time...the back of my throat is so swollen I can't sleep because it keeps cutting of my breathing and I wake up gasping with my heart pounding...and so much pain.

Just waiting for Ibuprofen to kick in, gargled with warm salt water, sprayed nasal spray to open up my nose, and sipping a warm lemon and manuka honey drink. Am afraid to go back to sleep; it's a terrible sensation!

I don't think the amoxicillan is helping!

cutting off*

Had tonsillectomy last year and its changed my life!! My doctors had to write three times to hospitAl to get it sorted. 12 times in ten months. I can honestly say it has changed my life. Two weeks of painful recovery with tramadol :-)

Meant to say op. I started to become immune to a/b as I was taking them so often. 8 times in a yr, maybe its not surprising your body will take a little longer for them to take effect. Hope u feel better soo

Have a tonsillectomy -it transformed my health. DD 13 had tonsillectomy this year after 4 episodes this year and 4 episodes last year - she looks like a new child, has also grown +++ and stopped snoring! DD was only in hospital for 2 1/2 hours - unbelievable. I was however there for a week - but it was years ago and techniques have changed. Get an ENT that uses laser - I had the old fashioned "guillotine " method and you don't bounce back from that so quickly!

tonsillectomy is the only solution.

I had 4 lots in 2 months when I was 21 - basically one week ill, one week getting better, then falling ill again.

the 3rd bout affected my joints horribly, my knees were so swollen and painful I couldn't walk.
my GP said if I'd had a 5th bout - which I did - the tonsils need to go.

sorry, but they won't get better.
sadly tonsillitis can affect your joints and even your heart - don't hesitate to get rid of them.
(6 lots is more than enough!)

poor you.

I think I'll go back to the GP today and discuss options. That was the first night it's given me really bad sleep apnoea and the sensation of waking up gasping and with my heart feeling over-worked is enough for me to really think about my options.

You do absolutely need to be seen today. Explain what happened last night.

I just spoke to the GP on the phone and have been given an appt for later this morning. Thanks everyone for the advice!

I hope the appointment went well.

If by well you mean given two minutes to talk about what happened last night, told I haven't given the antibiotics enough time to work, and to take ibuprofen for swelling then yeah, it was super. Hopefully a better night tonight. for your concern.

:( that is shit. You absolutely did the right thing in going to see him and if i'd seen your post in the night i'd have been urging you to go to out of hours. Breathing isnt an optional activity. If you find it happening again tonight i'd really consider going to OOH

I would give you two weeks of augmentin(co-amoxiclav)which is amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid which gets at the anaerobes( bacteria that don't need oxygen to reproduce so love living deep in the crypts of the tonsils) one of my colleagues was given this and has had maybe one episode of tonsillitis in 6 years having had 6 per year before that and was on waiting list for tonsillectomy. My daughter also had it after a summer of continuous tonsillitis that penicillin didn't touch and she too has had virtually nothing since. You need the long course (10 days minimum) to totally eradicate the bacteria.

I had tonsillitis between 5 and 8 times a year, and a constant sore throat throughout the winter every year.
However, I had my tonsils out in June, and I haven't had a hint of a sore throat since. It really hurts for two weeks, but it is utterly, utterly worth it!

The second I even think my throat is sore or glands feel swollen, I do a day of taking tyrozet throat sweets, and have a vitamin c.

I got it 4/5 times last year, and think have only had it once this year when I didn't do this fast enough.

www.nhs.uk/medicine-guides/pages/MedicineOverview.aspx?medicine=Tyrozets