How Long Does Tonsillitis Last?

Hi All,

I have tonsillitis and am on the first hour of penicillin (2 tablets 4 times a day).  It is very painful to swallow and I have yellow pus on both of my tonsils which was not there yesterday.  I feel weak and lethargic and headache. Felt like this for a few days and now the pus.  Worried my tonsils will swell so big it will stop me from being able to breathe.  I suffer from healthy anxiety so this is very worrying to me.

I have 19 days sick leave from this year - been so unlucky - food poisoning after a holiday, 2 bouts of full blown flu, 2 bouts of tonsillitis and now got tonsillitis again - I cannot believe it.  I cannot miss work as they make comments about the amount of days I have had off.  I am at my desk and really struggling as I feel so awful.

How long does the penicillin take to kick in? I can't remember....

This forum is really helping me - thanks L 

I'm 17 and have had Quincy in the past and am now experiencing another dose of tonsillitis and it feels almost identical to the Quincy I used to have and i feel like the antibiotics prescribed for this tonsillitis is not working at all. I also don't have the common symptoms e.g. ulsers ,spots on the tonsils and instead of these I have a locked jaw (which is horrendously painful ) and a complete loss of voice . It has been going on for 6 days now and this is my 3rd day of antibiotics and I can only see a decline. So my question is could this be Quincy again or will the antibiotics start working.

I been dealing with this for about three weeks and this is killing me, the pain from not being able to swallow, to the ear pain, they have gave me two different antibiotics because I have been to the Er twice for this because I’ve been in so much pain, I just want this to be over with! I’m 31 and this had brought me down, I can’t work right now due to the pain, I don’t get to see a ENT until Jan 8th. My taste buds are jacked up everything taste weird and I can’t really keep anything down do the flim, has anyone ever had it last this long. I just need to the light in this situation I need this to be over 

Like most others here, I'm in the midst of a bout with tonsillitis too. I started to feel a tinge of sore throat on Monday evening and by Wednesday morning my right tonsil was painfully swollen and red, I had a fever and my glands were even noticeably swollen to my coworkers. It started turning white and it was extremely painful to eat or drink and I probably wouldn't be able to breathe if it weren't for the fact that my left tonsil is OK. I was given penicillin and have been taking ibuprofen, using lozenges, doing salt water gargles etc but absolutely nothing touched the pain. My fever is just barely being held in check by Tylenol.  By Friday night I'd been on antibiotics for over 48 hours I still was not feeling any better. So I resorted to desperate measures. About 2 years ago I broke my ankle very badly and had surgery to fix it. I was given oxycodone for the pain but I didn't need to take most of what they gave me. I didn't have any negative reactions to it at the time so I saved it in case of a situation like this in the future. I looked for any possible drug interactions and couldn't find any so I took one. It's obviously old and not as strong as it used to be (which is probably a good thing). While on it, the pain is still there but it's manageable. It's allowed me to eat and drink enough to stay hydrated.  I can't recommend this for everyone since some people have negative reactions to opiates and there's obvious dependence issues but if you know you can handle it and have legal access to it, it can make getting through this manageable.

I can not sympathise enough! Only 3 weeks ago I had horrific bacterial tonsillitis which was treated via antibiotics and now surprise surprise I have horrific viral tonsillitis. I cant swallow or eat or drink and have to crush my pain killers! I have to spit everything produced in my mouth and have a sort of lock jaw thing going on where I have a massive lump under my tonsils that has made my entire jaw swell up to the point I can barely open my mouth. Im on my 5th day and no sign of any recovery, if anything its getting worse, but A&E and my GP have both said there is nothing they can do as it is viral and I just have to wait it out. How long will it last?!?! Im going insane! I cant even talk without experiencing excruciating pain! Not to mention its difficult to breathe out of my mouth due to furry tongue, massive tonsils and build up of saliva that I just cant swallow. I really am truly sorry for anyone going through this as well! 

I went to a doctor yesterday he gave me an antibiotic injection as well as tablets now I'm feeling more was worse than before.... M literally planning my own funeral as i cant stand the pain anymore# cryingAsISwallow

Ya I had strep throat about 20 or 30 times as a kid, antibiotics always worked fast.  Today, 39 yo, I've had bacterial throat infection for a week and oral antibiotics aren't working.  I went to the hospital once and got an IV, and that helped a lot, but didn't have enough money to continue with the IV therapy.  The oral medicine doesn't seem to be helping much.  Guess I'll have to go back to the hospital and hope they have a stronger type of medicine.

So if you start taking IV antibiotics, try to keep on going through with it, and switch to oral as late as possible.  Best of luck to everybody, seems like my case is mild compared to many.

I'm 30 and I've been suffering with this since I was 29,the problem with my case is that I can't get a diagnosis, every time I go to a doctor with my symptoms he tells me I'm just stressed from work and that I need to relieve stress and take it easy and that it's all in my head , at first it started with difficulty swallowing and breathing hence I wouldn't be able to sleep during the night , but lately I'm starting to experience pain in my throat from the left side and in my left ear, I have the rash, I have hot flashes not fever that lasts for hours, I always feel like I have a lot of phlegm and lately all my spit is white phlegm and even though I'm spitting it out it's like nothing is getting better, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night scared in going to swallow my own tongue, plus I get stomach aches and they are getting really annoying lately because you feel like you're always stressed and on edge even though there is no reason for it , after I convinced the doctor that it doesn't make sense that the reason behind my suffering is "only in my head" he went with the next best thing which was 'GERD' and I did my research and got on a diet but still , some days I would be following the diet to a T and I would be in so much pain and discomfort and other days I would eat junk and fatty food and I would feel relaxed and good , which also means that it's not related to GERD especially after I spoke to GERD patients .. I'm sorry for the long post but I've been holding it in for so long saying I don't wana complain and that I'm focused on figuring it out sanely but those doctors drove me crazy , to feel like you can trust the internet more than your doctors is such a bad place to be at .. my question in the end is : what's the best way to get a diagnosis , I've had the camera thing down the top of my throat but nothing showed up, also nothing showed up on the sonar's examination .. I'm going crazy can someone help me please !

Let me tell you that I am coming out of it right now as I write this.  My sores are all there but the burning intense pain when swallowing is gone. So yes, this goes away eventually.  But these last few days have been intense, painful and the worst sickness of my 41 years on this planet.

Here is my story:

Day 1 (Clueless and about to fall into dark abyss of pain)

This is when I thought I had the common cold or flu.  Had all the usual symptoms fever, chills, body aches and feeling miserable.  I thought to myself “I’m going to lay in bed this time around and take good care of myself”.  However, one thing that stood out more than anything was my sore throat.  It came on like a ravenous pack of hyaenas.  I was like WTF is up with my sore throat.  I wish I would have known what was in store for me.  That my life was about to be put on hold for the next 7 days and that this would bring me to my knees. 

Day 2 (False Hope)

This is the day of denial.  I woke up a bit better.  My body aches were gone and felt like I had a bit more energy.  But the one thing that is there is the throat and it is a raging fire.  Every time I swallow all my muscles in my body spasm from the pain and somehow, I always end up in the fetal position.  It’s awful.  I had used my phone to shine the flashlight in there and saw some white patches.  This is where I know something is wrong but I am in denial – maybe its strep.  I plan on going to doctor tomorrow. Slept like crap. 

Day 3 (Falling)

After another night of hell and no sleep I realize that I’m in trouble and decide to go to walk in clinic in morning. In my head I have concluded that I have strep.  I looked in the back of my throat and now there were white patches all over my soft palette.  Went to doc and turns out I have no strep – its viral.  Go home and ride it out. Ok cool so I go home and continue my struggle.  My throat is 100% raging.  I’m drained tired and in constant throat pain.  Every cough is dreadful, every time I swallow is like grabbing sandpaper and dragging it on an open wound.  This is bad and I feel panic and dread. 

Worst night of my life.  Was so tired and exhausted.  I would lay my head back and close my eyes dose off for 1 second and wake up because of awful cough followed by gut wrenching PAIN from a thousand open sores in my throat.  This happened about every 4 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG.  This was the low point and when I discovered this forum.  Every hour I continued to clean myself out with the neddy pot and all kinds of green brownish blood snot junk would come out.  It was some time this night that I lost hope and went into a bad mental state.  Thanks to this forum I could find some relief and sympathy from other stories and I decided to share mine if I ever got out of it.

I stared talking to God this night.

Day 4 (A glimmer of hope)

After my worst night I took off again to the walk-in clinic a different one this time and they saw me.  Immediately they said my lungs were wheezing and saw that I could not even talk and they jumped all over me. Tested for Flu, Mono, strep and xrays for pneumonia.  Everything came back negative.  They put me on a breath treatment for 10 mins where I breathed through a tube some type of steroid.  They told me it’s some viral strain and that they did not recommend antibiotics.  But they sent me home with 2 things that really helped: a proair hfa (albuterol sulfate) inhaler and some 100mg of benzonatate (cough suppressant).  I believed the doc about the viral thing not needing antibiotics so I didn’t get them.  The doc did say that if I changed my mind and wanted antibiotics to just call her.

This is when I learned that a big reason my throat hurts so bad is because my whole throat is upset, under siege and constricted.  So, its tight and anything that goes through a tight place rubs on stuff more.  Once I took a hit of the inhaler I felt my throat go back to its normal place and open up.  When I swallowed it now hurt like 100 hyenas instead of 1000 (pain becomes very relative after going through this).  The cough pills just gave me a break to rest from coughing so much – most of my coughing was useless anyway so this helped me rest my throat from my violent coughing. 

When I got back home I got about an hour of sleep and after waking up I saw my eye was gunky and pink.  I’m utterly defeated at this point. 

I manage to pump myself up again and with all my medications I feel a bit better about tonight and ready for it.  Neddy rinse every hour, inhaler and try to see if we can sleep an hour or so.

Day 5 (When 2 hours of sleep is a great night)

Last night I did same thing I’ve been doing needy rinse salt gargles every hour, rinsing out nose as best I can then laying down to try and doze off for a minute then cough and wake up to glaring pain.  But wait… the pain is actually not as bad as a couple of nights ago. This happened all through the night until like 4 am where I slept for about an hour. 

In the morning I woke up feeling alright, I mean hey I got 2 hours of sleep in the last 4 days so as good as this can feel.  But this is the morning where for about 4 hours straight I coughed all kinds of gunk out.  And it felt good.  I didn’t care that it ripped my throat up every time and that it was bloody – I could see all the crap that was inside of me coming out.  Brown, green reddish clunks of what I thought was ground beef but it was mucus and snot. I coughed and coughed and hacked and hacked for about 4-6 hours all morning.  My throat is blaring and I’m so exhausted that I manage to nap afterwards a bit.  Realized that the post nasal drip green gunk makes my throat sores burn – when it feels like its burning it means that its covered in post nasal crap.  I wash out and rinse with salt water and it feels better. 

Day 6 (Pulling myself up)

Same kind of night, but I got about 4 hours of sleep now.  Progress?  I’m so pessimistic and depressed that I don’t even want to get too excited about anything.  Watching my throat every day and can see that some white patches have moved around… something is happening.  I am also eating better now and feel good for a bit.  Also feel like there are windows of time where I am ok without meds.  Picking up antibiotics just in case. I know what to expect tonight and am ready.  I feel I can see a light at end of tunnel.

Day 7 (Hope)

It’s clear we are improving.  Throat is calm – full of sores but tucked away (non inflamed) without any meds.

Feeling the effects of sleep deprivation.  Completely beat up. Started antibiotics because I know I am so drained and depleted all I need now is to pick up some complication – hell no let’s take the antibiotics.  Sores are there but the burning is gone at this point we just have a cough, congestion, cold symptoms and pink eye.  I can handle this.

 Day 8 (Last days of a flu and pink eye)

Throat pain is finally gone and we are on the mend.  Still can’t sleep that well from cough but nothing matters anymore – the burning throat pain is gone who cares.  Everything else is manageable. I understand that it will take me about 7 – 14 more days to carry this cough out.  I’m estimating I should be back to training and playing tennis again in about 3 more weeks.

Survival Tips:

Neddi pot rinses.  Use this to gargle salt water and lean back all the way until you feel it dripping into nasal passage as you gargle.  Then lean over in sink and let it all fall out of mouth and through nose.  Do this a few times until no more gunk flows out.  Then try to neddy through nostrils.  I did this every hour for the hellish 4-5 days.  It was a full time job.  Can’t imagine not doing this as this really helped my body stay clean and I am willing to bet is what helped me get over this in about 6 days.

Going to doc ASAP.  Ask for antibiotics and get them.  “oh its viral u don’t need antibiotics” to which your response should be “give me fuc#$%& antibiotics and let me decide”.  You can decide to take or not take.  Ride it out but if you get hit with bacterial complication (which after 5 days of this s**t there is a high chance) having them on hand will save you another freakin trip. 

Get the inhaler. The inhaler saved my ass.  It helped me realize that a lot of the pain (in my case) was because all your respiratory tract is inflamed and tight/collapsed.  Just having things open up is a bit of relief and anything helps when u are in the middle of hell.

Isolation chamber. I took over our master bedroom and basically went into isolation camp hell. This helped me not worry as much about my daughter and wife.

Stay strong, do what you need to in your head to stay strong and know that you will survive and come out on top

Hope this helps! -E