Painful tonsil stones keeping me awake at night
Posted , 3 users are following.
I've suffered with tonsil stones for a while. They're usually quite large but tend to break into smaller bits to get out. I've been to the GP who gave me a liquid to gargle for the pain. I do that every 2-3 hours, yet it still wakes me up at night. The pain is awful and it's almost like I can feel the little stones. I usually have to try and remove some so I can attempt to sleep.
The build up is basically all on my left side. It's starting to bother me more an more as it's disturbing my sleep regularly and frequently causes problems at work too.
Is there anything I can do to get rid of them and stop them coming back? I can't use the liquid the GP gave me forever as it doesn't 100% get rid of the pain and doesn't fix the problem
0 likes, 3 replies
lily65668 faithy1
Posted
You know you can insist on specialist referral under the NHS? An ENT in your case, obviously. Your GP can't legally refuse but many claim they can, in an attempt to keep costs down.
You clearly need more than just an antiseptic gargle, and it may be that your tonsils need to removed. Push for a referral.
faithy1 lily65668
Posted
He did say that he didn't want to have them taken out so I'll see what I can do. I definitely need a permanent solution
lily65668 faithy1
Posted
It's true that doctors these days are far more reluctant to remove tonsils than they were when I was young. And thank goodness for that! In fact, tonsillectomy was considered routine, and was performed on almost every child who had more than one sore throat in a year. I was born in 1944 and I only managed to hang on to my tonsils because we had a forward-thinking female GP (both very rare in those days!) who was convinced the tonsils were part of our immune system. And subsequent scientific advances proved her right, of course.
That being said, the tonsils aren't absolutely essential to the immune system, and an ENT surgeon will still sometimes decide to remove them. They're useful bits of kit to have, but if they start creating more problems than they're solving they may be better out than in. An ENT specialist is really the only person qualified to make that call. And they may also have more non-surgical solutions they can try than the simple remedies available to a GP.