Any experience with recurrent bacterial (non strep) tonsillitis?

[Ali in OR]

My college kid was hospitalized for several days 3 weeks ago with acute tonsillitis and bacteria got in her blood so she needed IV antibiotics. Then another week of oral antibiotics. She's a week past finishing those and she got sick yesterday. Not as bad as before, but acute tonsillitis again. They have her back on oral antibiotics and a referral to see an ENT. Just wondering if anyone has experience with this. Is it more likely that she just needed to be on antibiotics a bit longer or that she will need to have a tonsillectomy?

My brother used to get strep every year or multiple times a year and eventually had his tonsils out as an adult--no more problems. But I have never had strep and this isn't strep anyway--some other bacteria. This is just my stress and anxiety trying to logic through what is going on. Thanks for any insight.

[J-rap]

Everyone I've known who has had that problem eventually got a tonsillectomy.  I don't know why that is, why it keeps coming back.  That's what happened to my dd as well.  It wasn't strep, just some bacterial infection that kept settling into her tonsils.  Having her tonsils removed fixed it!

[gardenmom5]

a friend did.  her dr finally said, well, we can take them out . . . it wasn't apparent how bad it really was.  she did opt to have them out - during the surgery it became apparent just how infected they were and that taking the out was what really needed to be done. 

[Tiberia]

I was having frequent recurring infections, non-strep. Eventually they took out my tonsils at age 45. Surgeon showed them to me afterwards and said they should have come out years/ decades ago. They were full of infection, and just "overflowed" every few weeks, making me sick. Even though a tonsillectomy may seem drastic, it may be the best and quickest solution. Sorry. I know it's stressful. I hope you find a solution that works.   

[Zoo Keeper]

I'm another person who had chronic tonsil infections (not strep) all my childhood and early adult life. 

Finally I found a sympathetic ENT and had my tonsils out in my 20's.  SO very glad I did. 🙂  Recovery from the surgery was a rough few weeks, but nothing compared to what I had been through for years before the surgery. 

[Ali in OR]

Before this year, dd had never had tonsillitis that I'm aware of. So this is something new. I guess we'll see what happens after this round of antibiotics.

[Carol in Cal.]

Make sure they are checking her for Mono.  That's a classic presentation.

[geodob]

Make sure that she takes the full course of anti-biotics.  As a common problem, is that people stop taking them too soon.  When the symptoms disappear.
Here's a link to a fairly recent study, that concluded that removing tonsils shouldn't be done unless really necessary:
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/what-are-the-long-term-health-risks-of-having-your-tonsils-out

[Sherry in OH]

This may be obvious, but she needs to toss her toothbrush and get a new one. She might want two.  One for now and another new one for after she finishes her course of antibiotics.  

[Ali in OR]

It's definitely not mono (a virus). The hospital did identify the bacterium. She took the whole course of antibiotics and knows that is important. She laid low for a few days but I think as soon as she was feeling better she got back to not enough sleep, too much stress, etc. I'm sure she didn't change her toothbrush; dh thought of that last night and I mom-spammed her today with lots of advice--change toothbrush, clean hydroflask well, clean your retainer well, etc.

[The Governess]

Is she gargling with warm salt water? This can help soothe the throat and reduce inflammation, and also flush out/kill bacteria. Combined with a saline nasal spray this could be a good supplement to the antibiotics and might help preventatively also.