[MissLotus]

My whole life (I'm 36), I've had really huge tonsils. Doctors, when they see them, always comment on their size, but no one's mentioned removing them...till now.

I saw an ear/nose/throat doctor, and he is very concerned not just at their size, but that one is so very much larger than the other one. That discrepency in size has always been the case, too...but he'd never seen me before so has nothing to compare it to. I'm not sure if it's my own paranoia since I saw his concern, but now it seems to me that the larger side is even LARGER than it was....and trust me, this is one big tonsil and a strange shape....almost like one golf ball attached to another one (nice image, I know).

Since my tonsils have always been crazy, I honestly hadn't even LOOKED at the darn thing, for like - years! It almost never hurts...just every few years if I'm sick or something. Hasn't hurt in about 4 years, the last time I had a cold that affected my throat area. But he was using words like "tumor", etc....scared me silly. He said we could do a biopsy, but I said if we'd go that far, I'd just rather have the darn thing taken out, and he agreed.

So now the pressure is on to have my tonsils out...but I have so much going on this summer, between travel and oh yes, I'm getting divorced. I'd also need to depend on my mother to care for me and my son during what they say is a long and painful recovery (at least 7-10 days)....I hadn't known it was such a big deal for adults, but have been reading online, and there's lots of blood, pain medication, dehydration because it's so difficult to eat/drink, ETC.

Has anyone had weird, lop-sided tonsils like mine? And tell me: What did you do about it? Am I a fool to wait on having them removed (I'd like to wait till September). I want to make it go away!

 

[wendy1221]

I have huge lopsided tonsils, too. I've been told by at least 5 doctors I need to have them removed. I haven't yet b/c I still don't have insurance. My dh is a grad student. I think I will do it once I have insurance, though. I'm 30, and docs have been telling me for the last 10 years they need to go. I haven't died yet.

 

[MissLotus]

Wendy...Glad that so far, it's okay for you!

May I asked what doctors have said the cause could be - are they too concerned not only with the size but the fact that one's bigger than the other?

Like I said, my doctor is using the word "tumor" which gives me the heebie jeebies. Yet he wasn't exactly calling an ambulance or anything...it didn't seem THAT bad.

I did a seach online and it said there can be cancer of the tonsil (who knew?) but in most cases that was related to drinking and smoking, which I've never done. So I told the Dr. that and he said there's always lymphoma..."not that I think you have that, but...", he said. So that's what's scaring me. But what would scare me more is if this was just developing. They've been like this for years and years...but now each time I look at them, that big one seems to be getting bigger and I think it's mostly due to fear.

 

[CarrieMF]

I have had 1 tonsil that is big since I was 11. The other one you can't see unless i turn my head sideways. The one that is enlarged always has little holes where pockets of some sort of infection were, yet I'm never sick.

I've never had a dr comment on them, or mention that they(it) should be removed.

Yes fear can make our eyes do tricks. It sounds like this dr wants them removed as a JIC thing, kinda how they used to remove tonsils for every person who had EI's. How many adults have tonsils still? If he thought it was urgent that it be removed becuase he thought it really was a tumor he wouldn't be saying "not that I think you have that,"

This is something I'd get a 2nd opinion on.

 

[wendy1221]

Never had a doc mention cancer. THey're usually concerned b/c when I get strep, my throat closes almost completely up and I'm in the ER getting IV steroids (for the inflammation) so that I can breathe. That hasn't happened in almost 4 years now, since I gave up dairy, though, so I think I solved that problem.

 

[teachma]

I went to an ENT for something very similar just several months ago. When I look at the back of my throat, I can see my right tonsil sticking out from a little "pocket" in the side of my throat, by my left tonsil is not visible at all. While my right tonsil isn't huge, it is clearly different from what I have on the other side of my mouth. My doctor offered to biopsy it but did say he thought this was just the way my mouth was...I was the one who brought up the scary stuff like tumor/lymphoma because I had been feeling sick for quite some time and I was trying to find out what was causing my fatigue and loss of appetite. One day when I opened my mouth and saw what looked like an enormous, looming tonsil, I became immediately certain that it was the cause of all my problems. Especially since my mom and one of her sisters both had Hodgkin's disease (a type of lymphoma). Well, I ended up not pursuing the tonsil biopsy because several of the doctors I saw told me it was just "asymmetrical tonsils" and they'd probably always been this way. You can get a biopsy without removing the whole tonsil. It is, however, an inpatient procedure. Lots of good wishes to you.