Don't get Tonsillitis is my advice.
I find it difficult to believe quite how ill I was last week. On Sunday evening, my left tonsil suddenly flared up, and I thought a cold must be on the way so went to bed. Monday morning I got up to do the kids' breakfasts but was struggling somewhat. The tonsil still feeling intensely sore, and now the other one was up. I sms'd my boss and told him I was doping the sensible thing and trying to take it easy. I think my temperature was already pretty high by then but basically, I barely left my bed until Wednesday afternoon, got up for a couple of hours, and was so exhausted I had to go back to bed! I tell a lie, I did manage to get an emergency appointment with the doc, and get some penicillin.
All the time I was thinking "I'll be ok in the morning, go in, do a few hours and come home", then I'd try to get up, and find I could barely stand. My tmnsils meanwhile felt like 2 huge thistle covered ping pong balls. They bashed the back of my tongue every time I breathed or swallowed - and as for swallowing - frankly, I ate a few biscuits and some yoghurt but that was about it until Thursday. My trousers were nearly falling off me when I eventually got up. That white bloodcell crust that you get when your tonsils are really rotten - that was so big I had white blood cell lumps falling off on to my tongue.
Aha, but then, *then* it spread to all the other glands in my head. Ears, side of the throat... my throat was hot and red on the outside, and my glands so swollen it felt like I had flaps. Christ!
It has made me reassess slightly - I do get quite a bit of trouble from my left tonsil. It sometimes does get infected to the point of white blood cells which I now think is probably slightly on the strong side. But it's always been accompanied by colds before, so I assumed it was my tonsils acting as a first line of defence and temporarily losing the battle. I'm glad I haven't succumbed to anti-biotics every time, anyway, or I would have been taking them rather a lot.
What can I do about it meanwhile? Naff all. It's still sore around the left side. And stiff. It almost feels like scar tissue or something. I cannot imagine what it must have been like before antibiotics, for an infection that severe. How long would it last? It would almost certainly end up with permanent damage. How extraordinary.
Anyway, so - that was not quite what was expected. I thought I had a bug that's been going around. turned out I had a bacterial infection that took me out for a week. Blimey.
