Thursday, August 05, 2004

ARRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Why can't my body be normal? If it isn't my stomach, it's something else, my feet, fatigue, and now my tonsils.... My allergies have been bad this season, and my throat has been REALLY itchy. And my tonsils are the size of China. I thought it was from my allergies, and so did my doctor, so we switched my allergy medication. But my insurance company will only pay for 2 allergy medications. Allegra, and Clarinex. Allegra wasn't working, and they wouldn't pay for the Zyrtec, which is what the MD wanted me to take. So we tried the Clarinex. Never mind that my co-pay of the stinking medicine which I'm only on because its the only one that they'll pay for is $30. (and I thought I had GOOD insurance!) But my tonsils haven't gone down, and now one of them is looking kinda funny.

For those of you with weak stomachs, please skip the next 2 sentences with the description of my tonsil. Oh yeah and don't click on the link either.

Large, and kinda bumpy shaped, with white areas, kind of like whiteheads on my tonsil. Here's a link to a picture of what my left tonsil looks like, though only about half as bad

And it's been that way for awhile, a month or more at least. And now my throat feels swollen when I swallow, and not sore throat pain, but swollen when I swallow pain.

So, I figured I should finally get it checked out right? See an ENT. So I tried to make an appointment with the ENT recommended by some of my co-workers, and they can't give me an appointment for 3 weeks. I don't really want to wait that long. So I call another ENT on my plan and get an appointment for the next day. (This was all yesterday) So I go to see him today, and he tells me that my tonsils, as all do, have crypts in them, which catch particles etc. to protect the body. That's what tonsils do. Well, my tonsils aren't cleaning those crypts out very well, and its all staying there creating those white bumpy areas, and creating my sore throat. And, of course, with my recent luck... the only choice is to have my tonsils out.

Kinda drastic don't you think??? He said the size of the crypts, suggest that I've had tonsil problems in the past without even knowing it... I don't like the idea of rushing to have my tonsils taken out. First of all who wants to rush into surgery, no matter how minor and common. Second, your tonsils are there for a reason, they play a part in your immune system, keeping the bad junk from getting into your body through your mouth, like armed guards at the palace gates. :)

Besides that, if I had the surgery, I'd need to take at least two weeks off from work, and that's a LONG time. Normal time is a week with a total of 2-3 weeks with no strenuous activity. But I'm all over the hospital lifting patients etc all day, so I'd need to be off all that time.

The ENT guy said he can give me an antibiotic, but usually this kind of thing is recurrent, and it'll come back. So he gave me a large dosage of amoxycillin (875mg twice a day) for 3 weeks, and told me to come back in 6 weeks. But that's A LOT of antibiotics, I HATE taking antibiotics, even when I really need to, and ESPECIALLY when it may not even help. And with all the tummy ploblems I've been having, that can be irritating.

So now I'm angry and frustrated, I'm going to my mom's ENT Monday for a second opinion. I'm going to wait on the antibiotics until I speak to him. I'm just angry that the options are so limited, surgery or just live with it. GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRR........ I don't know what to do.... Why can't there be another option?!?!?? Why can't my body be normal and healthy???

Anyway, in my internet search for information, I found this picture It's rather racy/gross depending on how you look at it, but I found it funny. I thought it may lighten the load of the post while still staying on topic.

Although I'm still frustrated.... I don't want surgery, but I don't want a chronic swollen, sore throat either....
AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, Im having the same problem you did way back when! The picture of your tonsils looks exactly like mine! Just wondering how you cleared it up, because Ive had it for about 4 months now, and like your doctors did, they gave me antibiotics.. didnt work, strep test several different times, negative.. so I was just wondering what you did!! Im tired of being swollen!!! Thanks! my e-mail is Bev_04@hotmail.com!