Chronic tonsillitis that doctors are not taking seriously

14 comments

1. It’s time to go to a university hospital to rule out something else going on. Especially if you’ve been jumping around small clinics you may have a problem getting adequate treatment. Continuously throwing antibiotics at a problem that may be resistant bacteria (especially if you are an individual that participates in oral sex, I know people don’t want to think about this), viral, or a problem other than infection is going to do more harm than good.

   As this is my specialty, if you are in Tokyo I can recommend a few doctors who will help you get it straightened out.

2. I’m sorry to hear you’re not feeling well!

   With what very limited medical knowledge I have, it’s possible the infection could be viral in origin and not bacterial if it doesn’t seem to be responding to antibiotics. Or, it could be a resistant bacteria. But that’s my speculation— either way, best to go see a professional who will tell you for sure.

   As another commenter said, I’d go back to say there’s been no improvement and ask for a referral to a large hospital where they can give you a more thorough examination and diagnosis.

   Hope you’re feeling better soon!

3. Ask for a referral letter, and go to a university or an international hospital.

4. This happened to me!

   On and off — swear I had strep as I used to get it every other year or so for a bit as a kid. No doctor here ever did a test. Just clocked my insane fever, then looked in my throat and went wow yeah looks pretty awful in there.

   First guy tried to just give me pain killers.

   Went to another place after that did nothing and I requested antibiotics for strep (still no test – and I was literally told that Japanese people simply do not get strep). They gave me like 4 days worth of probably the wrong antibiotic type the first time, then tried to do that again when I went back but I requested a longer round of them.

   That seemed to work. But then it still came back a bit later. I was so fed up with everything that I went hard on Dayquil/Nyquil I brought from home and hoped it’d get better.

   Eventually it did, but it was terrible and I later had some weird flare ups. I think maybe I’d gotten mono or something? But I never found out.

   I’d definitely recommend a university hospital, with a doctor who has studied abroad if you can. The local clinics and even hospitals here shouldn’t qualify as proper doctors most of the time imo.

   I hope you feel better soon!!

5. Simple question, because you sound like my old life….

   Do you still have your wisdom teeth???

   I lived with chronic sore throats, including multiple cases of strep per year, for years. I always felt like I was either getting sick, sick, or kinda recovering from being sick.

   Getting all my wisdom teeth removed literally changed my life. I went to tons of ENT specialists and not one of them recommended this.

   Intact wisdom teeth have periodontal pockets that harbor bacteria and they are impossible to brush properly.

   If you have any wisdom teeth, get them out of your head ASAP.

   I personally did one side of my mouth first, chewed on the opposite side while it heeled, then switched the process for the other side. I think it worked great.

   Best of luck to you, I hope you have luck resolving your illness.

6. Could be any number of reasons why it’s not clearing up. Sometimes antibiotic doses can be weak here and courses can be very short. In my experience, severe tonsillitis can require 14 days uninterrupted course of appropriate antibiotics.

   Could also be resistant infection. Not to infer anything, but as an example some STDs can manifest as tonsillitis and they can be very resistant to antibiotics.

   I believe that letting it heal naturally might involve allowing the infection to effectively remove your tonsils for you.

   My suggestion would be the same as others. Go to a bigger and better clinic.

7. > The newest ENT I visited has decided that going off of antibiotics completely and trying to let my body heal naturally is the best course of action.

   How many doctors have you seen? Remember that doctors aren’t going to take your word for things in terms of treatment. You have a XYZ they’re going to do the tests and start treatment at zero.

   You don’t get better and go “what a quack I’ll go somewhere else!”

   New doctor will do the exact same thing that didn’t work the first time because they don’t have your medical records and they have to start at zero all over again. And of course it doesn’t work again. So of course you go “what a quack I’ll go somewhere else!”

   Hopefully I’m wrong here but I’d suggest giving a doctor a chance to actually figure out what’s wrong and develop a proper treatment plan. And I’d absolutely avoid the guy you’re talking about, he sounds like a quack.

   BTW if you’re like me and an allergy sufferer I get persistent throat and ear infections during allergy season. The cure, for me, is to stop the mucus from feeding the bugs with antihistamines rather than antibiotics.

8. I have had a similar issue like you this year. I had it 7x this year, and the last time, very recently, it lasted for a month. Unfortunately, Juntendo University didn’t help at all in my case.

   I’d recommend you try to get a letter of recommendation from your current clinic and make an appointment with Tokyo University. I know it is far away, but their approach may help you, as they did to me.

9. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I can really sympathize. When I was in high school and college, I had near-constant tonsillitis. It greatly impacted my quality of life and I was frequently fatigued and sick as a dog. But I was afraid of getting my tonsils removed due to a fear of being put under general anesthesia. I finally found a doctor who was willing to laser off my tonsils while awake. It was very painful but I have had not a SINGLE tonsil infection in the 10+ years since then. It’s incredible what that procedure has done for me.

   I can’t help you with finding a doctor in Japan willing to remove your tonsils. I’ve heard that it is not considered routine or regular to do here. When I told a nurse at the hospital I gave birth at that I had had my tonsils removed during the medical history review, she was shocked and asked why anyone would ever do that. Conversely, in my home country, it seemed every tv show I saw growing up featured at least one episode about a kid getting their tonsillectomy.

   But anyway, I did just want to chime in that sometimes the tonsils just have recurrent issues, frequently caused by things like crypts in their structure, that may not go away until they’re removed.

   According to my doctor back then, one upshot of getting them lasered as opposed to guillotined might be that a little bit of tissue remains and therefore the immune function is left somewhat intact (he said something about b or t cells but it went a bit over my head). The recovery also is far less bloody. Anyway, could be something to look into.

   Good luck!

10. Try another place…then try try again
    I had chronic tonsillitis all my life
    Got it 4 times in short succession in 2019.
    Saw a new doc who offered to remove them.
    Set up the appointment and it was done about 1.5 months later (after antibiotics and blood tests)

    But maybe an even stronger case for keep going to different ppl and advocating for yourself is that after being shuffled around to 30+ doctors over 15 years here and spending a fortune on tests, scans, mris, X-rays etc etc, I just finally got diagnosed with ehlers danlos syndrome, the condition that I suspected for at least 5 years but was “too rare” for me to have according to every doctor ever.

    Good luck out there

11. > blame my condition on stress/not taking care of myself

    Oh boy, I hope Japanese doctors aren’t typically that incompetent that they think bacterial infections are caused by stress like its still the 1950s and you have ulcers.

12. I had tonsillitis for 5 or so years in a row.

    The first time I got it, the doctor initially put me on a very mild antibiotic course, which is fair enough. When that failed, he put me on a slightly stronger course. When that also failed, he wanted to just extend it but I insisted as loudly as I could (at this point, a hoarse whisper) that I wanted as strong as necessary to wipe it out. The antibiotics were accompanied by very powerful antidiarrheal meds the doctor assured me would be completely ineffective. My tonsillitis disappeared, along with the contents of my guts.

    Year two, and I went through the same process, but this time I kept hold of the prescription. The following year I presented him with that and went straight to the hard stuff. Year four, he remembered me and I didn’t even have to present the old prescription.

    My experience with antibiotics in Japan is they tend to prescribe weaker antibiotics, which I understand is quite dangerous as it tends to “train” the bacteria to resist. Better to use the right tool for the right whajyamacallit.

13. I had a similar problem. I can’t remember if mine was viral or bacterial, though I think I was on antibiotics for awhile which didn’t help. I went to multiple doctors who did not take it seriously. I tried to get my tonsils removed at a hospital, but decided against it because they said it was be a 5 day stay in the hospital and that I needed to lost 10kgs before because my neck was too fat??? It could be that your tonsillitis is caused by something else. In my case, mine went away after I started being treat for GERD because the constant acid in my throat was inflaming my tonsils causing the tonsillitis.

14. I’ve had similar problems. Nobody seems to want to remove adult tonsils in my area! (Except I do know one woman who did get her tonsils removed and was happy.)

    What made it manageable for me was a CPAP machine. What really, really helped was quitting my job. It was mostly stress! But it’s not an option for most people.

    You do need to stress that you are missing work x days a month, and while losing your job due to absenteeism is one way to reduce stress, it causes all sorts of other stress. No, don’t say that. Just say, you lose x days a month, you could lose your job.

    Seriously, getting good sleep and plenty of oxygen via the CPAP helped a lot with colds, and also cured 70 percent of my morning muscle aches.

    You need to show you are seriously having life issues. Look distraught. And keep trying. I think going to a teaching hospital is a great rec.