As I have mentioned in a previous post, I am having Laparoscopic surgery in May. The surgery has been scheduled for over a month. The appointments and re-op phone call times are even on my calendar. During that time I’ve developed chronic swollen tonsils. At first, I thought I may have had strep so I went to urgent care. I waited for 3+ hours just to see a nurse practitioner, who prescribed antibiotics for (undiagnosed strep, he never bothered to do a strep test) and stariods to help the swelling go down. He said my tonsils were as big as thumbs. I finished up the antibiotics, and the packet of stariods, and within a week the swelling was back. I decided to make an appt with my usual Drs office…couldn’t get in to see MY Dr, so I saw another Nurse Practitioner. She ran a rapid strep test that came up negative. She assumed it must have been an allergy, so she prescribed another blister pack of steroids and Claritin. I took the new meds for a week and nothing improved. I would take the steroids before bed, hoping they’d help keep my airway open so I could get a good night’s sleep.

Yesterday evening, the swelling got really bad. I had Clint look in my mouth to see the swelling.  He said that it looked like my airway was the size of a straw. We went to the ER. I was thankfully seen fairly quickly in terms of ER visits. The Dr. examined my throat, did a strep test (both rapid result and lab culture – both negative). He then comes back awhile later and says that he’ll prescribe me the same steroid I’ve been taking for over a month. I said no, that I’d like something different. He gave me one that I took right there in the ER. He said it should last 4 days, and recommended I make an appt (another $30 out of the over $200 I’ve spent for my throat alone) to see my PCP to get a referral to an ENT specialist.

Luckily for me, I know my PCP personally. I sent him an email about what had occurred at the ER, and the extra costs to see him in the office. He sent over a referral for me this morning. I had text’d him this morning telling that I had awoken in the middle of the night chocking, and has to sleep with my head propped on two pillows so I could breath.

I see the ENT tomorrow!!! I am hoping to have my tonsils removed before my surgery in May. We’ll see how it goes!