[Kitty-N]

First of all, I'm seeing my dr tomorrow for the 3rd time in 4 months for tonsilitis (you know when you have had it so much you can just diagnose it yourself - for example, Wednesday I vomited my guts up, Thursday I was exhausted, Friday I was starting to feel the glands welling up, Saturday I was feeling the pain but masking it with painkillers to get through work, and today I am weak and in pain even with ibuprofen/codeine combo - tomorrow will be the kicker where I cry in my drs office because I can't swallow without razor blades) so I'm fairly familiar with the symptoms.

I know they don't take them out lightly these days, and I know they serve a very important purpose in keeping the body healthy, but mine just plain suck! This is the most I've had tonsillitis in quick succession, but it's something I get yearly or twice a year most of the time.

So does anyone know how many episodes you have to have to have them removed? I'm a bit sick of antibiiotics (I'm fairly anti-antibiotic and so this last few months have been a bit of a problem for me).

The other question I have is, what could be going on with my immune system that I seem to keep having this problem? My kids and husband have only had it once - I am fairly sure I'm run down. Would you have the dr do blood test for immune stuff? I like to think that my eating and lifestyle habits have improved in the last six months,I exercise (when I don't have tonisiltitis) and I have started feeding our family from much more unoprocessed foods, lots of veg and protein.

Any tonsil gurus, I would love your advice

[Shellby]

Really depends on your ent. My dh never had tonsilitis until 3 years ago he got 3 bouts in about 8 weeks, in which the gp referred him to a ent to have removed on just that. The ent was happy to put him on the waiting list to have them removed. Dh decided to wait for another bout but that never happened, so never went on the list.

So not all doctors are against removing them as we found.

[Kitty-N]

Thanks guys. That's really interesting Shelby - when it's in such quick succession, it sort of indicates something is up, hey. Nice to hear your dh got better though, maybe it's just a passing thing for me.

[His Boy Elroy]

I'd be asking for a referral to a private ENT and get them out.

I saw a story on Embarrassing Bodies where there were pits so big in this guy's tonsils that he used to have to squeeze the food out of them once a day. This was from the recurrent infection. GROSS!!!

I had mine out when I was 2 and DS had his out when he was 5. The improvement in his general health is AMAZING!!!

[mad madam mim]

I was told 5 times in a year when I was trying to get them to remove DS2s (I was over seeing my poor baby in pain and he was being put under for another op anyway). In the end he had it 4 times in a year so they wouldn't do it.

[buttercup-bob]

When i was 17-18 i kept getting tonislitits, missed a fair chunck of year 11 and 12, including having to put in a special consideration for one of my hsc exams as I was so sick at one point during the exam period.

Off the top of my head, I think I was diagnosed approx 14 times during that 2 year period.

I was on antibodics more than I wasnt and generally, i would finish a course + repeat and end up sick again. The clincher for me was when i started straight after the HSC, the second week there I was too sick to make it to work, fainted in the shower from being so sick etc. I ended up with a whole week off work.

My mum took me back to the dr, demanded a referral for an ENT appointment, rang and begged for a quick appointment with them. He said straight away I needed them out. two options, 1, wait on public hospital waiting list - at the time was 18-24 months or I could go private (at that point, no PHI). I chose to go private, sucked up all the cost and had them out 2 weeks later and havent been sick since.

I know its a big deal to have them taken out now butwhen you look at your quaility of life and the fact you keep getting sick, maybe you are better off to convince a surgeon that they need to be dealt with!!

[Lyn86]

I ended up getting my tonsils out at 23 after a bad couple of years, but prior to that I always got tonsilitus when something else was wrong as it was my weakest point. I had it for about 6months straight and it turned out being my wisdom teeth infected.

[Kitty-N]

Buttercupbob, yes, that's the thing - its really affecting my work situation, I've had to change the structure of my business quite a bit over the last few months (no home visits, limiting my clinical hours etc) and that's affecting our finances. I had to cut short one clients appointment during my last bout if tonsils, because I was about to pass out! Luckily she was a dr

Hmmmm. Looks like I need to have a bit of a discussion with my gp tomorrow.

[Funwith3]

My DD had hers out at age 3. From memory, I think she had to have tonsillitis 4 times within a year... which she did.

[Paddlepop]

My DH had his removed last month. He had chronic tonsillitis and was also constantly getting tonsil stones (like on 'Embarassing Bodies') that were really disgusting and stinky. He kept needing time off work and generally felt really run down and was constantly tired. His snoring had gone from mildly annoying to really irritating.

He got a referral to a private ENT, explained the situation, was examined and confirmed to have inflamed tonsils, and had them out a week later. For adults there is no requirement for a certain number of bouts of tonsillitis per year. Just that it affecting your health or life to the point that you are willing to take off 2 weeks for the painful recovery.

DH did find the recovery quite painful and was prescribed oxycodone for at home, and he needed to take it. One of the biggest dangers for adults having their tonsils removed is the risk of bleeding, and needing to be readmitted for further surgery to stop the bleeding. This happened to my DH. He had uncontrollable bleeding on day 9 or 10 post-surgery and had to be readmitted by ambulance. He was coughing and vomitting up blood. He was straight into surgery at about 4:30am once the surgeon arrived and was home by 2:30pm that afternoon.

Despite all of that DH has had no regrets about having his tonsils removed. He feels so much better for getting rid of them.

I started a thread about it asking for hints to help his recovery and was given some great advice by everyone. Link to the thread:
http://www.essentialkids.com.au/forums/ind...;#entry15059118
Link to thread when he was readmitted for bleeding:
http://www.essentialkids.com.au/forums/ind...032812&st=0