Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Forum - Strep Throat / Abscessed Tonsil

I just wanted to voice my experience the past few weeks incase it helps others or gives others a chance to go...oooh... yuk. Wink

I've had a few really bad sore throats the past 5 years. A total of 3 flare ups so it's not chronic. I 100% HATE going to the Doctor, so the last time I had a flare up I decided to treat it with cayenne powder, apple cider vinegar, warm salt water, etc. Luckily after a few weeks it went away. I have no idea if all the home treaments worked or not.

A few weeks ago I had another flare up. It started with a simple dry sore throat, which after a few days turned into a major sore throat. I again started the above mentioned home treatments but this time nothing was working. The pain was getting very bad. I noticed this time around the pain was just on the left side of my throat. I didn't have any puss pockets on my tonsils. But my tonsil was swollen. Again, the pain at this point was worse than anything I've ever felt.

Seriously, I've had a ruptured achillies tendon, gall bladder disease, but the pain from this is worse than anything I have ever experienced. It's amazing how much feeling you have in your throat and as the muscles constrict as it tries to swallow water/food, the tonsils go along for the ride which ultimately causes the severe pain. Nothing can describe how bad the pain is. No one can understand the pain unless they experience it for themselves. The left side of my throat going down my throat was very swollen. Seemed like I was swallowing small pillows with every swallow.

Emergency Room Visit #1
I tell them I think it's strep throat, they take a look and say yep it's strep. So I get put on some anticbiotics and I'm on my way home.

Emergency Room Visit #2
2 Days go by and I'm back in the hospital room with severe pain, can't swallow anything, my throat is almost closed. They shoot me up with steroids, a shot of antibiotics, and I'm on my way home.

I actually start feeling better! But that night, my heart pounds all night long and I'm sweating all the time, a side effect from the steroids so I plan on not taking the prescription of continued steroids.

The next day I feel good enough to take a drive. The pain starts to come back, full force worse than ever. But then something starts to happen. I keep saying "honey, you have bad breath." She's like..."me?". I'm trying to be nice "yah, babe your breath is really, really bad". She says it might be me so I pull over the car and place my hand in front of my face and sure enough it's me, my breath is rank!!

I remember some people talking about "tonsil stones" where bacteria/food gets clogged in a tonsil and it can cause a stink in your mouth, so I thought I would feel around for one in my tonsil. I ended up pushing on my swollen tonsil and the worse oooze I have ever smelled or seen came out of my tonsil onto my finger. I started to panic and think I had throat cancer, I continued to get all the ooze out and I started to feel somewhat better.

Emergency Room Visit #3
At this point after some research I knew exactly what was going on, so when the doc came in (3rd doc in 3 visits) I said "tonsil abscess" he looked and said yep. I told him he needed to either lance or stick a needle in my tonsil and drain the puss, that's why it was not healing. If there is puss in the tonsils the antibiotics can't do their magic. He said yep.

The doc tells me this is going to hurt more than anything I've ever felt, I said wrong, the pain I have been suffering has prepared me for anything. When he stuck my tonsil with the needle, surprisingly it wasn't that bad. It didn't bother me at all to be honest, ofcourse I was already at threshold "10" on the pain scale to begin with.

He drained some puss, didn't get out as much as he would have liked to. Put me on even stronger antibiotics and pain relievers. I asked him if I should continue to drain the tonsil using my finger pressure move, he said sure if I could stand the pain. The key factor in healing is to get that horrid puss out of my tonsil as quickly as possible.

It's been 3 days since the last emergency room visit and I can safely say I'm well on my way to recovery. The tonsil swelling is gone, no more puss, very little pain except for some soreness from everything being swollen.

Key points in helping the antibiotics work:

1) Make sure to rest with your head/upper body higher than your lower. You don't want the infection to "pool" or stay in one place. Buy keeping your head up things drain better, goes in and out of your system. Wink

2) Chew gum! This works wonders for pain relief!! Alot of pain is caused by the tissue not being moved or worked. So it gets tight, dry, etc. By chewing gum you not only get the tissue/muscles moving, you get saliva built up which helps promote healing.

3) Warm/Saltwater is fantastic. Works wonders for cleansing and pain relief.

4) Chicken Soup. Same reason as #3 except it tastes better.

5) Drink water/go to the bathroom - repeat 24/7!! This is key to getting the toxins out of your system and helps the medicine work better as well. If you're not pee'in a couple of times an hour or more, drink more water.

The pain during all this has been incredible. I never understood why someone would take their own life because of "pain" but I promise you if I had to choose between living with this pain or dying, I would rather die. It's that bad, I'm still having a hard time beleiving that the pain in the throat from a strep/abcessed tonsil can be that bad. My wife, kids, all don't really understand the pain I've had. Unless you've had something like this, people don't realize just how bad it hurts. At it's peak, the pain is so bad you can't even think straight, you're a zombie just sitting there, nothing you can do to get it off your mind.

What I would do differently if if happens again:

From the very first sign of a sore throat, I would immediately start drinking a ton of water and initiate the warm salt water gargle. Plus I would start to chew gum. If it's still there after 1 full day of extra water and salt water gargle, I'm off to the doctor ASAP. Looking back, I did not start drinking more water or the salt water gargle until I was well on my way to a problem and I waited too long to go to a doctor.

Live and learn.