posted
Apparently I need one. My doctor is most concerned that I apparently have my fourth case of strep throat in less than six months. It's drug resistant strep, forcing me to take really strong antibiotics that upset my tummy and make me miserable.
He told me after the third case that a visit to an ENT was in order.
My question to the knowledgebase of Hatrack is this: Can one not get strep throat without tonsils? Will I still have problems with the strep bacteria even after a tonsillectomy?
I know someone who had one, she's over 30. She said it really, really sucked. IT hurt worse than her c-section did, she said.
That doesn't sound like fun.
Are there any other things you can try for re-occurring strep infections besides removing the tonsils?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:The literature on surgery for sore throat is scanty, out of date and lacking in scientific validity. Most published studies refer to a paediatric population. The current widely accepted criteria for surgery are of the order of seven episodes of tonsillitis in the preceding year, five episodes in each of the preceding two years or three episodes in each of the preceding three years, and have been arrived at arbitrarily. They take no account of whether the condition is worsening or improving and make no distinction between children and adults, in whom the disease may behave differently. The small amount of information about adult sore throat and the effect of tonsillectomy is not scientifically robust by current standards but suggests that surgery is beneficial.
from one webpage.
eMedicine pretty much agrees. that there was one study that showed fewer infections, but that no one really knew.
posted
Iīm no doctor, so I can only tell about my personal experience:
I got a tonsillectomy in 2000 after having 3-4 infections in 6-7 months. The operation itself wasnīt that bad, afterwards you get to eat lots of icecream.
The throat infections vanished afterwards and when I now get an infection, itīs not a big problem anymore, the infection normally vanishes in a few days without the use of antibiotics.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Tonsils are lymph nodes, and they can act as sort of boggy little pus pits. That is, they form a site where infection can coalesce and hunker down for the long haul.
But -- as was so eloquently noted by Suneun -- I don't think any of us have any real idea whether tonsillectomies are useful in adults. For certain select pediatric patients, they may be.
Talk to AJ, though. She was miserable until her tonsillectomy, and although it's just one person's experience, she might have a useful perspective to consider.
posted
I've been getting tonsilitis every time my nose runs. We're talking at least once every season. It turned out my dad had the same problem and had his tonsils and adenoids removed as an adult. He told me that they learned that doesn't really work (or something like that) but that his problem went away and never came back after the surgery.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I had my tonsils removed as a child (11 yrs old), so I can't really comment on having a tonsillectomy as an *adult*, but a bunch of my health problems cleared up immediately afterward.
I had chronic ear infections and sinus infections which stopped abruptly after having my tonsils out. My voice also became a *lot* less nasal, which boosted my self-confidence. Also, after having my tonsils out, anytime I did get something that bothered my throat, it seemed a lot less severe than before (mono didn't give me tonsil problems, because I had no tonsils, etc.).
Anyway, I took a couple weeks to recover fully (as a kid), and it hurt and was generally unpleasant, but things were so much better afterward that I see the whole thing as a positive experience.
That's just me, though.
Oh, and one of my brothers had his tonsils out later - towards the end of high school. For no other reason than that they seemed to be the cause of awful, awful halitosis. He's much happier with them out.
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