Any miracle cures (please!!) for Tonsillitis? (or any help for severe throat pain)

j.e.j.

I'm not sure about treatments, (and tbh we're not supposed to be diagnosing or giving medical advice on here;)) but can you try eating/drinking something liquid like smoothies? That way you'll get a little bit of food into you. Hope it clears up soon. If it doesn't improve, or gets worse, I would try ringing the emergency dr.

Dave101t

i had a very similar set of symptons a few years ago , back then apparently i had toncillitis and gladular fever, neck was really bloated, throat almost totally closed, i was 1/2 hour from calling 999. i had the antibiotics but they only ever shorten the length of the illness by a few days so i had to stick it out. i remember having to fake swallow 10 times in a row as fast as i could, in order to be able to bear the pain of swallowing a morsel for real!
not much worked for me unfortunately, but im currently having another throat infection which i just took paracetamol, the 'warm' strepsils, and the benylin and it took the 'edge' of the pain.
to be honest, i think the anti biotics and penicillin were almost placebos for their help.

greenbee

I have recently had pneumonia with a throat infection that left me with no voice and a vocal cord granuloma caused by coughing. With my throat and neck swollen I found I had the same problem as you with swallowing and breathing.

Please be very careful about taking additional medication if you are already taking dihydrocodeine and paracetamol and make sure that you don't exceed your prescribed dose (easy to do if you normally take them every 4 hours, as if you can't sleep you may take more - take them every 6 hours instead to get the same dose in 24 hours).

I found the following things helped:

Drinking fizzy water or diluted lime cordial or apple juice (went down more easily than plain water)
Eating yogurt (get bio as this will help replace gut bacteria being killed off by the antibiotics), frozen yogurt or jelly and ice cream. I wouldn't have attempted toast.
Drinking in little sips and sucking throat pastilles (try to get sugar free) to keep saliva flowing and soothe your throat... I'm still doing this on instructions from the consultant.

Gargling with salt water is a good idea, but if your throat is very swollen then it may be impossible to gargle (I tried and it went everywhere as my throat was too constricted). The pharmacist gave me some gargle and tyrozets (which helped, but you can't take them constantly, they were good before bed and on waking to take the edge off the pain) so maybe try your pharmacy if you have a local one that is open on Sunday's.

Lifeforms

To be fair, I've been diagnosed with it, so I know I have it. Just now it's probably getting worse before it gets better, so anything outside what I've tried is welcome advice for me, and what I've seen on here has been welcoming!

Having just had a chat with a nurse practitioner she says to give it another day to see, and that it should improve by tomorrow. Roll on tomorrow!

I cannot eat anything, I can't gargle, I just gag/retch with it, which makes it so much worse, and I'm pretty much stuck on ice lollies atm which is agony to begin with, freezes it a bit after, then defrosts far too quickly!

Been told to crush paracetamol to take, as I have no soluble. I've gotten to the stage of just gagging up caplets, can still just force down the antibiotics as they're quite small thankfully.

As we all know, it happens to be Easter weekend, and nothing is open around here that'd even sell soluble paracetamol. It's always on a Sunday or Bank Holiday! (As my mother frequently told me after many A&E trips with an accident prone child; usually fingers in car doors, and walks into anything!)

ScarlettOHara_2

when the antibotics kick in they will work really quickly. In the meantime though gargling with salt water or dilute tcp can help. A drink of honey and lemon or a teaspoon of honey can be quite soothing. Other than that drink lots, rest up and wait it out.

jenniewb

OP, I have read your replies and they seem worrying. Your symptoms are not touched by OTC treatments? This would raise a lot of red flags in my mind anyway.

I would find out where your nearest walk-in center is, see if its open today, some exist within hospitals, add to this you should have an on call GP attached to your own GP service, if you call up your GP service today there should be a recorded message telling you what to do to get in contact.

I would try to get to see someone, its better you can get advice where you can see someone and they can offer better suggestions to you. As I said, I had similar symptoms and it turned out many people in my area actually had the same thing the same time and some to the extent where they were hooked up to a drip in hospital so it was lucky I did get in there early and was given medication, I had left it 1 week, others had left it longer and the effect on them was longer (some took double the time I took to get rid of the thing).

Please at the very least contact your out of hours doctor if you can otherwise go to a walk in center/hospital. I would suggest going to a pharmacist but they cannot give you as many products as can be prescribed to you by a doctor.

vax2002

garlic, lots and lots of garlic.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Dunno. But there is a really nasty bug going round at the moment. I never get ill (the immune system won't allow it), but it's left me feeling like I'm choking constantly.

Started pressing on the great lumps that used to be glands (now feel like crabapples) around my throat and collar bone a couple of days ago - five clicked, one went 'pop' and I felt loads of fluid draining out. _pale_


It's doing the rounds of the local musos, lots of gigs with stand ins, absent bandmembers, singers playing guitar and leaving drummers to sing, that kind of thing.




If you cannot even swallow saliva, get back there for a proper look to ensure it isn't a quinsy. I had one and the locum insisted there was nothing wrong with me. Three years and one almost terminal tonsillectomy later and the surgeon confirmed that everything was most likely due to the undiagnosed quinsy. It was agony - breathing was reducing me to tears.


Horrid. 'It's probably a virus' is no consolation when you can't breathe. Never mind the result that is 'it's bacterial. Here's a prescription for antibiotics.' That's cause for :j:.

Lifeforms

I did give the OOH service a call and spoke to the nurse practitioner who basically said not given it long enough, give it another day for antibiotics to kick in. Sit and wait. Because I can force myself to swallow at least water, even in agony, it's all fine. To be expected!

skintscotslass

I do sympathise. I suffer from tonsilitis and its just awful. The one thing that makes me feel better is hot lemonade. I know it sounds a bit weird, but it always makes me feel better. I heat it up in the microwave. I also gargle with salt water.

Hope you feel better soon. I usually find that the antibiotics kick in after 24 hours.