Do you just ride-out tonsillitis (with white patches) / strep throat?

[Gettingonabitnow]

Or do you need antibiotics. White patches on both tonsils, temp of 39, feel fucking awful and horrendous week at work ahead so wondering what to do. Ride it out or do you need antibiotics when there are white patches? Id have to get an urgent gp slot so it’s no easy thing.

thanks x

I suffered from that and needed my tonsils out. You need to see a GP as you will need antibiotics

Had this the other week, given a ten day course of penicillin

I had tonsillitis a few weeks ago with a 12 week old baby. I think if I didn’t have a newborn I would have tried to go longer without but I went to the docs got antibiotics and felt much better within 24h

I have had it since Tuesday last week. Trying to ride it out, but the throat pain got worse on Friday and I feel like absolute crap. Worst throat pain I have ever had, and I get tonsillitis quite often.

I tried to ride it out and ended up in hospital with quinsy. I’d definitely see a gp to check.

Thanks everyone. Strangely the pain from the tonsils isn’t the worst, it’s the fever.

No, white spots indicates bacterial origin and needs antibiotics. The longer you leave it the worse it will get. Don’t underestimate tonsillitis, I know I certainly did until DD got it so much earlier this year that she needed hers out!

Get to a GP. Don’t ride out tonsillitis. A friend of mines went septic and she ended up staying in hospital

I’ve had this several times and ridden it out. But there’s no glory in doing so. I try not to take antibiotics as they mess up my digestive system long term.

White = docs

You can gargle with soluble aspirin.

Antibiotics

I’d go to a walk in centre today or call 111 to get seen. My boy has just been prescribed 10 days of antibiotics for exactly this. We rang 111 and we were told to go to minor injuries unit within 6 hours without even needing to wait for a call back first

Always antibiotics.

Over the years I’ve had a few tussles with GPS who say it’s viral and to ride it out, but for me, it’s always bacterial and antibiotics knocks it out in 48 hours.

Sympathies - tonsillitis is horrendous.

I get this so frequently I often do just ride it out. I recently had it and it seemed to stretch on for 2 weeks. When I go to the gp for antibiotics it clears up after a couple of days.

Yes definitely, I tried to ride it out a couple of years ago and ended up with post strep arthritis, which was 10 x worse than the tonsillitis.

also get some hydrogen peroxide to make a gargle.

In my NHS trust you need three out of four things: white spots, fever, swollen glands and NO cough to get antibiotics for sore throat. Having a cough makes it more likely to be viral.

Thanks, no cough. Will try them tomorrow. Thanks everyone

Don't ride it out. It can develop into kidney inflammation or rheumatic fever.

Your doctor should swab your throat and culture the swab to make sure it's strep.

This can be done instantly in the office, and the swab result can be confirmed in a lab afterwards.

I have never had a positive result from the instant test, but the lab has always confirmed strep.

It would depend on how much I didn’t want antibiotics, they always give me thrush which is particularly annoying if I’m breastfeeding as nipple thrush takes forever to shift.

Either way OP whether you get the antibiotics or not you probably should take time off work to rest and get better

I struggled with it for 5 days when I had it 2 weeks ago, then I went to the GP because I couldn't bear another day of the headache/temperature. They gave me antibiotics straight away - with a warning that I was to go straight back if they hadn't improved it in 72 hours. My tonsils were completely white and I had drool coming out of my mouth constantly from being unable to swallow without wincing. They told me to double dose on days 1 and 2 but probably because I'm allergic to pencillin/erythromycin and doxycycline is about the only one I can tolerate. My poor stomach is still recovering....

I rode it out a few weeks ago but might have been lucky. Gargled with hot water and salt about 5 times a day which really really helped. I didn’t have time to go to the docs or I would have but pleased I didn’t in the end. Temp lasted about 2 days and then throat improves about 48 hours after that

Difflam spray is also helpful.

Thanks everyone. Think my fever has now broken overnight (didn’t drop below 38 even with paracetamol but now has) but the white patches are still there. Still seek out a gp appointment?

thanks again