MY trip to the ENT. I want to SUE my old Dr.'s

I went to the ENT today. I have been creating, and dealing with what I was told were tonsil stones since September. First I went to the Dr. and said I coughed up this thing that look like plaque she said it was probably just plaque that got caught in my tonsils. Then I went back to a different Dr. in December because my throat hurt and I was not sleeping well and I have this white thing on my tonsil. He said it was a huge tonsil stone. Everyone gets little ones and they are common. Perhaps you felt like there was a pice of popcorn stuck in your throat but you haven't eaten popcorn in weeks. That was probably a tiny little collection of tonsil grossness that what tonsils do.
Since then I have also coughed up two or three more pea (or bigger) sized stones. My husband and I noticed that right before I cought them up I would get a sore throat and feel sicky and really really tired. So the last Dr. had said that if I am having issues I would have to see an ENT.
Well, today I went to the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doctor. He said there are not actually stones he doesn't know why people call them that. He just said that the tonsil crpty is engorged with dead white cells and other stuff. I explained to him that for probably ten years I have had issues with my tonsils and glands swelling combined with unrestful sleep and sometimes even a fever. I wanted to know if the stones or whatever were causing it or if what is causing the stones is causing me not to sleep well, such as a deviated septum causing post nasl drip.
Basically, he said yes the tonsil stones can cause all this and haven't you ever gone to the Dr. about your throat swelling up. I said yeah but they just check me for strep and send me home. I even went to the SAME Dr. in the SAME year 5 times and she just acted like I was a hypocondriatc. Well it is offical!!! I AM NOT A HYPOCONDRIATC. So there stupid Dr. I want to sue. (Oregon lawyers willing to do a pro-bono suit call me!)
He said I have 2 options. I can gargle with hydrogen proxide for the rest of my life twice a day and if they get swollen still try a very strong penecillian type antibotic. The other option is having them removed. The cause of the stones is not post nasal drip but a strong bacterial infection that has taken over my tonsils basically. He said "Tonsils, ....well most healthy tonsils..." get rid of the infection but yours are apparently not going to.
After thinking of all the issues I already with my back combined with the issues the tonsils are causing my husband and I are going to go ahead and get my tonsils removed. If I can breath easier, then maybe my back won't be so sore when I wake up. Just that one thing is worth 10 days of intense horrible pain. I mean two years of exhausting, overwhelming physical therapy did very little and I can't wait to start again. So this seems like it makes sense. On the other had I have a 14 month old toddler. I of course am scared of how this will impact her, but I don't think I have a choice.


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WebMD + OCD = a very long week!

My husband has OCD, he doesn't have to wash his hands a bunch, but sometimes it takes him three or four trips to the store to buy something such as a broom or shoes. I know it is a real disease that completely takes over a persons life. My husband has been able to keep control over it quite well.

He has been having a really bad pain in his ear. His tonsils have been swelling up. This has been going on for over a year now. We thought it was allergies, but then explain the sudden and year round issue. We thought it was an ear infection, so when we did get insurance he went to the Dr. to get antibiotics. When it came back the Dr. would not even see him. She said go to the specialist. So he called and made an appointment with the specialist. The next 24 hours were exhausting.

He kept telling the dogs that maybe he had developed an allergy to them and they would have to do. He took me aside after monkey was asleep to prepare me for the possibility of him having thyroid cancer. He told me how many days it would take for him to recover from a tonsillectomy and therefore would make no weekend plans in the case of an emergency surgery.

Finally, the next day came and he went to the Dr. Apparently, either a shot that he was given in the Navy or a weird virus he caught overseas or something random caused his ears to stop making wax. This made the skin in his inner ear was really dry and irritated. It was especially irritated because he works in a warehouse and the dock is where everyone goes to smoke when it rains. Also, the heater blows right in his ear. So these things were making a mild pain into a severe pain. The fix, a couple of drops of olive oil in the ear when it is irritated for probably the rest of his life.

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The Doctors Office ~not about back pain ~

So I was watching Oprah last night. She was talking about being your own health advocate or having a health advocate. She believes that you need someone who you can talk to about all your health problems who will help you process everything and come to a conclusion. Most people might think duh isn't that what your Dr. is suppose to do. Well, yeah that is what they are suppose to do but if you don't have a good Dr. this won't happen!
So then I was reading Sassy Mamma Bear's comments to me and her own blog. I realized this is actually a very big issue. It made me think of my health care while in the Navy.
Before I continue I would like to make very clear the following. This is my personal experience of care on a very small base that was shutting down. It in no way reflects ALL the health care of the military. Now back out Native American Momma's thoughts.
When I would go to a scheduled Dr.'s appointment I would go to a clinic. I would get whoever was working. They would put all my symptoms into the computer and say which do you think you have A or B. The symptoms for A include and the medicenes are X. The symptoms for B are and the medicenes are X.
I thought this was a very odd way to treat someone. Although looking back it is better then some other Doctors way to doing things. First off you had like a whole team, the computer database information, your Dr. and yourself. I figured out how to be my own health advocate using a clinic like this.
My health care advocate is my husband. The two of us with the power of the internet and a decent doctor has been a very powerful force in helping my health problems. Now, if only I had money to get everything fixed (that another issue!)

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Then I lied to the Doctor

Today my back hurts. When it doesn't hurt I work on the 17 year story of how I ended up applying for disability at 26 years old. So on days like this I can just hit the submit button.

Now that I am 26 years old, I have decided that the chronic pain I have been suffering isn't going away. I have been bloggin about my fight with the pain. To see the first two posts on my struggle of 17 years, check out the first one and the second one.

So I had to go to the doctors for a basic physical to get on the high school dance team, I was probably 14 years old. Dancing was everything to me then. It was a time I didn't feel the responsabilities that my mom dumped on me, the regular stuff a kid has to deal with and sometimes, I would be so caught up in concentration that my pain would even disappear, to of course reappear tenfold later on. Afraid that now I am showing a history of the pain, I would not be allowed to dance. So, I lied. I told her I still had pain but it was no big deal. This pain would go away with a few advil.

The truth of the situation was so bad, I look back and think why in the world would I lie. By the end of my freshmen year in high school, I had sought "other means" to deal with my pain. I was addicted to sleeping pills that I should have never started taking. I was slacking off in my school work. I was dancing three times a week for dance team for 3+hours, followed by classes, followed by working and then I would come home make dinner for the family, do the dishes, wash all my cloths and then I would go to youth group or a dance class. Finally, I would be able to sit down and do my homework but the pain would be so bad that usually, I would sneak off to find better pain killers.

I regret that I lied to the Doctor then. I felt at that time that it didn't matter. They couldn't make the pain go away. It was just another hurddle in my life other people have hurddles and this was mine. I had already been looked at by more then half the physical therapists in town. I was too young for them to consider chiroprator. I was never offered anything such as an X-Ray or MRI to see what was causing the pain. Most of that was correct, they can't fix me, but they can help me. I don't have to deal with the pain on my own.

Update on Tonsil Stone

*Warning may be gross!
Well, after irriating my tonsil to painfullness we gave up trying to get the stone out. It was making my throat hurt and causing really bad breath and it was gross, but we didn't have what was needed to get it out. So we just figured it would come out on it's own or I would have to have it surgically removed. We were right last night I was just getting off the phone with my sister and I started feeling a weird chalky feeling and a small tiny piece was on my tongue. So, I went to the toliet and started making myself cough. EWWWW It came out it was about 1/2 an inch long and 1/4 inch thick. The back end of it was grey.
Anyways, it is out of my mouth. Immediatly my other tonsil swelled up and my freaking throat still hurts. At lest it isn't swollen and making my ear hurt too. So I guess I still need to see a specialist, but at least it can wait until all the bills are paid.

Tonsil stone *warning a bit gross

So, I have always had problems with my sinuses. I feel all clogged up but nothing will come out my nose. So, I have to dig in there or it ends up getting coughed up. Usually, I would take lots of allergy medicines, followed by a couple of sinus infections, followed by bad bacteria in my stomach. So, the cycle has been allergy pills for three months, antibiotic, pro-biotic. Well, I finally discovered the neti pot (before it was on Oprah). So, I don't need the allergy pills as much, and the other problems aren't following.

We moved to one of those states where you can't get the allergy pills if you need them unless you go to the dr. Well, we didn't have health insurance for awhile. When we did get it, my allergies were the farthest thing from my mind. Instead I have focused on my back spasms. Getting all that under control. So, first thing I say to my Dr. is I need muscle relaxers.

Well throat was sore for like a month. I thought that I had strep or something being around kids again. I used to get strep a lot. So, it wasn't a far stretch but I never got a fever. I was at the point where I just didn't want to talk anymore though. So I went back in and explain my throat is really sore. I think it is possible that it is strep. Yet, I seemed to have gotten the sore throat within a few days of starting the muscle relaxer. So maybe I am allergic to them. More likely, though I think that I am having a post nasal drip issue while I sleep and that is what is causing the issue.

Well, my Dr. did a strep test to check. It came back negative and she gave me some Nasonex. It worked great! My throat didn't hurt anymore. The thing was that she gave me one sample bottle and that was suppose to cure it. So I was fine about a two weeks after the first bottle was gone.

Then my sore throat was sporadic and very mild. So, I just thought I would wait until it got worse again and go back in. Well, I woke up last week feeling achy and feverish. I figured it was just a little bug. My fever was gone within a few days. The little one had been super whiney a couple of days before so probably just a virus.

Then my husband gets in a fight with me regarding where your tonsils are. Then he decides to look at mine. There is 1 large white spot on my tonsil. He freaks out says some here, open your mouth and has a Q-Tip in his hand. I say you can't Q-tip away bacterial infections. So that looks like tonsillitis, except just the one spot. So I am probably just getting over it on my own.

That was Saturday, today Friday I woke-up and my throat hurts so bad on both sides. Then I hack up some really gross stuff that should have come out of my nose. We are frozen in and the weather has been super CRAZY so I didn't want to drive through the snow drop my husband off, come home, call the Dr.'s see if they had an opening, drive to the Dr. (or end up canceling and not going to the Dr. because it started snowing really heavy) come home and then go get my husband later in the day. So, I just took my husband to work and went straight to an "immediate care" clinic.

I say I think I have tonsillitis or something. So, I explain I was a bit feverish, and I have a sore throat and this white thing. Well, they swabbed me again and the Dr. looks at it and he tells me, "That looks like a tonsil stone". Tonsil stones can cause a sore throat. More importantly, they are caused by post nasal drip which also causes sore throat.

So after I have some extra cash I will have to go to a ear, nose and throat specialist to figure out how to permanently stop this post nasal drip. Also if my husband and I can't pop this thing out of my tonsil I'll have to see the specialist.

The Dr. sent me home with a prescription of allergy medicine, a saline rinse and (this isn't a joke) wikipedia information regarding how I should go about getting it out of there. He said get some chlorseptic to numb my throat so I don't gag. He tried to get it out with a Q-Tip (yeah just like my husband did haha) but I kept gagging.


I am just completely baffled!!! Oh here is the site incase you want to know more about these tonsil stones.

At the Doctors office again

I had to go to the Dr. when I was 12 years old for a physical and for shots. My Dr. did all the normal things, tested my reflexes, looked in my ears, blah, blah. Then she asks me if I have any pain anywhere. I said well, yeah I have that pain in my back like usual. She asked my more about it. I thought it was odd that she cared about the pain in my back.
In fact I was actually a bit annoyed. I had been into the office for other things, she never cared about my back. My mother even started making me fill out my own medical records well before that visit. I put on the paper that my back hurts all the time and that I get headaches. I just didn’t understand why she cared all the sudden. Like she didn’t have the information sitting right in her hand.
Now, I realize Dr.’s don’t usually read the information you fill out on the paper. I always fill it out though, because they must have us fill it out for some reason, maybe it is insurance or maybe they hope you won’t fill it out so they can say I didn’t know.
So, she said I should do some physical therapy. I told I did it and I still have pain. She said well, why don’t you just try it again. I’ll send you to a different clinic. Between my first time to the Dr. for my pain and this visit my Dr. had retired and I had another lady. I didn’t really like her. This me made me think she thought she was better then my last Dr. I rolled my eyes and took the prescription.
I went to the physical therapy office. They said, okay your doctor has set you up for 6 appointments. So, I got out my calendar and scheduled them all. Once again nobody said, now if the pain doesn’t go away in 6 appointments all you have to do is make another appointment with your doctor and get another prescription. I had never even thought of anything like that. This time they told me I had a "tilted pelvis". They also said that sitting so straight all the time was making thing worse for me. I was straining muscles that were already strained from the tilt.
Now, something else also happened at this visit. The therapist to determine a tilt kept digging his knuckles into my hip joint. So, after six visits to the physical therapist not only did my back still hurt, now my hips did too. In fact they continued to hurt for about a year and a half. I was given tubing, exercises (some of the same as last time) told I could take more then the adult prescribed amount of Tylenol and went on my way.
So this is what I thought physical therapy was. You get six visits, you get poke and prodded, you get some tubing, a sheet of exercises and you go home. You deal with our pain using the tools you were given. You take your medicines and you use your heating pad. At this point in my life it was all normal. Everyone was different, and for me this was just normal life.

The Pain began.

Still hoping for my back pain to go away. That isn’t quite true either. I keep catching myself waiting and hoping for the pain to go away. I know that it is not going anywhere. I knew it a really long time ago I think. I tried to explain it to my husband, but he didn’t believe me. So once again I went through the motions. Now finally he believes that I have tried enough. I guess it wasn’t all him though either. I mean I wanted to believe the pain would leave someday too.
So my pain started when I was nine years old. I also started getting headaches around that time. Nobody really believed that I was in actual pain. My best friends mom actually rolled her eyes at me and said that “nine year olds don’t get headaches”. I really hope she is right that most healthy nine year olds don’t get headaches. Anyways after a good three weeks of telling my mom that my shoulder hurt, I finally mentioned it in front of my father. He told my mother to take me to the doctor. A few weeks later, he seen massaging my back and I had started to do without noticing. He asked me about the doctors office and since I yet to go, my parents go in a fight.
Eventually, I went to the dr. he referred me to physical therapy. I was under the impression I could only go to the physical therapist six times. If you know anything about physical therapy that is not enough to do much. The physical therapist decided I had “rounded shoulders”. So I was told to sit very straight. I was given a few exercises, told I could take adult doses of Tylenol or Advil, advised to do heat and ice. Then I was sent on my way.
I was very unaware of the fact that since my pain didn’t go away that I wasn’t finished going to the doctor. I just quite complaining about it. I mean who likes someone whining all the time. I was nine, I wanted to be liked. So I continued to do the exercises and take medicine and do the heat and cold. Nothing much happened for a couple of years after that.
Well, I guess this is a good stopping point for now. My back is hurting and I need to do some exercises. Since I am twenty six this is a really really long story. I don’t expect anyone to read it all. I do need to get it all out though. So, I will finish it completely soon enough.