The beginning of the tonsil story...

The first week in December I took Kassi to the doctor for a fever that was staying around 103 and would not go away, no matter what I tried.  I asked everyone I knew for advice on how to get her temperature down and nothing worked.  On day three I took her to the doctor.  The doctor's response..."I don't see anything wrong with her, unless her symptoms change she is fine."  So I take her home, mad that she didn't really seem to care that my baby was running a high fever that would not go away.  To me that says something is wrong.

A week or so later Kassi says she has a sore throat.  It was on a day after she had spent the night at my parents house and she tends to have some drainage after being there.  I think it is from their wood stove.  We run a large area air purifier in our house so she the air is really clean.  Anyway the next morning my step mom calls and says Kassi says her throat still hurts, but she has no fever.  I let her go ahead and go to preschool.  I pick her up from preschool and look in her throat and take her straight to the doctor.  Again we get the doctor that told us to go home when she had her fever.  She tests her for strep which comes back positive.  We go pick up the prescription for Amoxicillin and head home. 

After eight days of this there is no change in Kassi's throat.  Her tonsils are still covered in white and are so swollen they touch in the back of her throat.  Still no fever or any other symptoms.  I call the doctors office and talk to the nurse.  The nurse tells me that it is common for them to remain swollen after being infected.  I argue that something is wrong.  She talks to the doctor and the doctor prescribes antibiotic number two, Omnicef.  We start on this.

After four days there is no change.  Actually at this point I think they look worse. 
I decide it is time to make sure we get in to Kassi's normal doctor instead of his partner.  So off we go.  He looks in her throat, backs away and shakes his head.  He reads her chart and asks questions about everything that happened since the fever we were told was nothing.  After some discussion he checks her spleen and a few other things.  He says yes she had tested positive for strep, but he thinks there is an underlying condition naming either mono or staph.  He says that it is really rare for mono to be in children Kassi's age and after checking a few other things he does not believe that is what it is.  He starts her on antibiotic number three, Clindamiacin, and a small burst of Prednisone to get the inflammation down enough that the antibiotic can get into the tonsils and work.  He did not test her for staph so we do not know if that is really what is causing all of this.  He says her tonsils have to come out or this will continue to happen every time she catches any viral or bacterial infection.  The big concern at this time is to make sure they do not get any bigger and keep her from eating or breathing.  He says to call back on Tuesday and if there is any change over Christmas to take her to the ER and page him.  He also says that the worst case scenario would be for the ENT to be three weeks out and Kassi be out where she can get infected again.  (Hence the going nowhere rule in effect.)

Tuesday gets here and the tonsils really don't look a lot different than they had.  He says to continue on with the antibiotic for five more days.  (This really scares me, because this is antibiotic is very hard on the system.)  I ask about the ENT referral.  The nurse says it is common for them to be two to three weeks out for the consult and with the holidays...  I remind her that the doctor said she needed to get in as soon as possible.  Later in the day I get a call back.  Kassi has her consult with the ENT on January 4th.  I guess this is acceptable with the holidays as I am sure they are closed for several days.

How do her tonsils look now with only one day of antibiotic number three left?  Well...one looks better some of the inflammation has gone down and most of the white is gone.  The other one not so much.  Most of the white is gone, but now, to me, it appears to be abscessed.  She is eating well, and says she is breathing okay.  I have caught her choking on her saliva when she is asleep, but she wakes up, gets re situated, swallows it down and goes back to sleep.  She is also terrified of having her tonsils out.  I try to reassure her and be strong.  (Truth be told, Mommy is terrified right now too and just really wants to know what the ENT is going to say.)

Now we wait.  Wednesday seems like such a long time away and I want to scream at the ENT scheduling office "Get her in sooner!", but I know that will not help.  I am not sure what to expect when we go.  Kassi's pediatrician said they cannot take them out when they are this swollen, but the worst thing would be to have to wait for the surgery.  What will they do then with the one that will not go down?  How long out will her surgery be?  Do I dare let her go back to school before then?  There are just so many things I do not know right now.