Tonsillitis is hell

[Coffeeandaworry]

I've got my first bout of tonsillitis at 31. It's a white plaque on one side and is making me feverish and unable to eat anything that isn't ice cold and liquid.

Besides the fever I have no cold/flu symptoms so suspect it's bacterial, but my GP has refused anti-biotics because I'm able to swallow fluids despite the pain. Surely if I was physically unable to drink at all I'd be put on IV ABs anyway?! They said to call in 3 days if it's not better. Currently on day 2.

Any tips? I'm maxing out paracetamol and the difflam spray, using strepsils and salt gargling. Would a TCP gargle help? It is worth putting pressure on my GP? I can't carry on like this. It's agony and making me a shitty parent to my toddler.

I have nothing but sympathy for you :(

As someone who suffered from tonsilitis constantly (till I had them taken out), the best I can suggest is to gargle TCP (diluted obviously) and stagger neruofen and paracetamol so you are constantly covered by one or the other. Chloroseptic spray can also help. Kick your doctor in the ass today and explain its worse and ask for an emergency appointment.

Oh, OP - I totally empathise. When I was younger, I used to get it every two months or so. I was constantly on antibiotics, until one day it was so bad that I was running a temperature of 41 degrees. At age 26, I opted to have them removed. I know that isn't "the done thing" nowadays, but it was the only thing that helped.

when i was a child in the 60s i just missed the fad of taking out tonsils at the first sign of a sore throat. I was really ill from tonsillitis about 5 and then again at 10 and i can still remember how ill i felt. I had nearly a month off school from it . I had measles when i was 8 or 9 and before and that depletes your immune system for upto 3 years so I am sure that probably was the reason i didnt recover despite antibiotices. I would get better then within a week of stopping the antibiotics , i would be ill again. They finally took them out that year

You poor thing. It is hellish.

My Gp's argument re not prescribing AB's is that apparently even for bacterial tonsilitis a course of AB's has been shown to only lessens the duration of the illness by less than 24hours than it would take your body to clear it without , so the policy is not to prescribe regardless of whether its viral or bacterial.

However there is no reason you should be in real pain. If staggering aspirin and paracetamol doses so you are always topped up with one or the other, (using the soluble forms and gargling with them for 30 secs before swallowing) is not stopping the pain, you need more relief. My gp prescribes 5 days of 4x a day 60mg codeine, much stronger than Co codomal you can get over the counter. I often can take it down to 30mg after a couple of days on 60mg.

Also ice lollies, chopped up and eaten with a tea spoon (avoid fruit juice ones too acidic, I just shove diluted squash in dishes in the freezer then hack bits off). This is numbing and keeps fluids up easier than drinking in my experience.

Oh dear, I meant it to be in chat, nevermind

Got my penicillin. Very relieved.

for you OP, like others I've only had it once in my late teens but to this day it's the most ill I have ever been. I hope the antibiotics kick in soon for you!

I hope you've started to feel the penicillin benefit today OP!

You need to go to boots, get some hydrogen peroxide a dilute it as per instructions and gargle with it. It will oxidise the bacteria on your tonsils and you'll be better in a few days.

I had to have mine out after becoming immune to the antibiotics and HP was the only thing that worked and it was a damn site more effective than the antibiotics and didn't upset my system or mean I had to stop drinking.

@Twinkie01

You need to go to boots, get some hydrogen peroxide a dilute it as per instructions and gargle with it. It will oxidise the bacteria on your tonsils and you'll be better in a few days.

I had to have mine out after becoming immune to the antibiotics and HP was the only thing that worked and it was a damn site more effective than the antibiotics and didn't upset my system or mean I had to stop drinking.

Op posted this 2 weeks ago, hopefully better by now

Yep, realised that!

Hope you're better OP.