First of all, let me start by telling you this was horrifying for me. I was completely disgusted during this whole process. Reader beware! This post contains real pictures of this nastiness…. I’m embarrassed but I think this might be helpful to someone out there!
It all started around 1 pm when I suddenly felt aching body chills and wanted nothing but to lay down in my bed. With two kids running around and a million unpacked boxes in our new home, this was NOT what I wanted. I had no choice, I went to bed. My throat started getting sore and I could feel something on my tonsil. It felt kind of like a popcorn kernel was stuck in the back of my throat. I didn’t do anything that evening besides drink water and chicken broth. I was just too miserable.
The next morning I could see a large white spot on my tonsil and it was swollen. I was surprised at the size. Of course, I kept taking pictures through this whole process because I really wanted to know what was going on and track the progress.
How I started to cure it:
1. Apple Cider Vinegar solution. Apparently germs have trouble surviving in the acidic environment ACV creates. I started gargling aggressively with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. If you haven’t experienced this, you should try it. Wow. I pretty much choked on it and it started coming up my nose. FYI: it burns. Test out the dilution for what works for you. I could handle about 1/4 of the glass filled with ACV and 1/4 filled with water. I will say that once you get used to it, it actually feels pretty soothing.
2. Bone broth. I drank A LOT of this. Nice and warm and soothing and FULL of nutrients to help your body put up a good fight. Learn more about bone broth here.
3. Cayenne pepper and honey mixture. This is where the story gets interesting. Don’t worry, I have pics that will demonstrate the impact THIS had! I took a little honey (about a teaspoonful) and mixed in a sprinkle of cayenne (about 1/8 teaspoon). You don’t need a lot of the cayenne! I then improvised and used this “tool” (flat side not pointy side) to apply the mixture directly to the white spot. Don’t worry, that “tool” is no longer in my silverware drawer. It has been moved to the medicinal cabinet. 🙂 I applied the mixture and the white spot came off (more like OUT). I had no idea that it was actually gunk inside a HOLE in my tonsil! Apparently we have holes (nooks and crannies) in our tonsils and bacteria and other lovely things can get in there. Then BOOM! You have white gunk. If the gunk hardens it is called tonsil stones and that leads to the whole tonsillitis nightmare. I had no idea. You can see the progression in the pictures below…
Lots of overly dramatic gagging and nasty mucus response to the cayenne later, the white gunk was gone and I just had a gaping hole that freaked me out. I aggressively started gargling once more and drank more bone broth. Once the gunk was removed the healing process really kicked in high gear. Within 24 hours the gaping hole was closing up and the swelling decreased significantly. By 48 hours I was back to normal and resumed unpacking and all the normal crazy that is my life!
4. Sea salt water gargle. This is another option I started doing toward the end of the healing process. 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt to one cup of water. Works great and is a great thing to start doing at the first sign of a sore throat according to Dr Michael Smith at Carolinas Natural Health Center.
You’re right, that’s pretty gross, LOL…but THANK you for posting this!!
That is a tonsil air stone). Not an infection. You didn’t heal anything, they are harmless and will pop out when they feel like it. You can do all of that stuff, but it doesn’t hurt anything by being there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillolith
I kind of agree with you. If you don’t do anything about them they apparently can harden and turn into tonsillitis. I had quite the fever and chills that were quite painful. My body definitely did not like it. 🙂 Better to “nuke them” before they get worse!
Respectifully disagree, but this does not appear to simply be a tonsillolith type stone in the first pic. Those are hard calcifications usually behind the tonsil in the pocket. You can actually get them out with a Q-tip or your fingernail or you even end up swallowing them. They also dont cause the symptoms she described. This appears almost like a giant strep spot, right on her tonsil. In conjunction with Kara’s symptoms, she most definitely had some sort of infection and her body was fighting it off, thus her sudden onset of symptoms. Tonsillitis and infections like that also have big white globs on the tonsils that grow out the holes on the tonsils too,(even though, a tonsillolith can form after an infection is clearing up from the left behind gunk).,. I think she did a great job of helping her body fight the infection quickly!
That may be, but as somebody who has had this more times than I care to count, it in no way feels harmless. It’s painful and can zap all your energy, making you feel like you have the flu. And it does not go away on its own very quickly at all. Unless you take action, it just gets worse. Take it from somebody who once had to take a pain killer just to get some sleep, because one of those bad boys made an appearance on my tonsil on a Friday night. Point: her actions probably did help.
Yeah, it’s a tonsil stone! I started getting them a few years ago and they never stopped. So prepare to possibly keep getting them. You can pop them right out. The often get worse when you’re sick, so maybe that explains the chills.
I started periodically getting these tonsil stones a few years ago (no accompanying chills or sore throat though). I agree, truly disgusting & embarrassing. I wonder if there is anything that can actually prevent them from forming? And I feel like they must be an indication of something being wrong in your body, but I’m not sure quite what…
I get these alllllllll the time & they’re so annoying. I’ve had them when I’m sick & also when I have no symptoms of being ill. I figured it was just a product of my body fighting off something. I’ve been told they’re harmless & you either swallow them (and they’re dissolved in your stomach acid) or you expell them when you cough. These things have left my tonsils so potmarked it’s ridiculous! Glad to know I’m not the only one who suffers from them!
I would look into candida overgrowth based on the severe white coating/discoloration of the tongue. Unless this is remedied your body will continue having trouble fighting off infection.
Thanks for the info! I will take a look at that. 🙂
Kara
How weird! I have never known anyone else who’s had these besides my sister and my grandmother!! And now I even know what they are! They are SO gross (whatever you do, don’t squish one. GAG!) I get them constantly and they are disgusting. I usually take preventative ‘im getting sick’ measures when I get them because they have been a great indicator for me in the past. However, it seems I get them for no reason now. Oh and next time you can pop them out with a spoon handle or popsicle stick. They come right out easily. You can even rub the area around where they are coming out and get a few more hidden ones.
Yes, so gross! Thanks for sharing those tips!
Kara
I usually get them if I am eating/drinking more calcium than usual. They make your breath smell sooooooo bad too! Looking forward to sealing up the hole. Thanks for the post; gross yet very note worthy! lol
Two words: thieves oil. Good thieves oil. I’ve had this junk on my tonsils many times. The most effective way I’ve found to get rid of it, and start feeling better quickly, is to use a ton of thieves oil.
I put 5 drops in a capsule and take that 5-6 times throughout the day. I mix it with coconut oil and rub it into my neck/lymph area. I put a few drops into water and gargle. And the worst and hardest: I get a qtip, dip it in the coconut oil mixture, and swab that whole area, several times a day. You will gag. For sure. But it works.
My other recommendation is to get a lot of rest. As much as possible. I think all the things you did are great and do work. But invest in thieves oil. Using it knocked that junk completely out of my system in 24 hours. It was not only gone off of my tonsil, but I felt good and had all my energy back.
As many times as this has happened to me, I consider myself an expert. It always helps to catch it early, before it looks like a nasty heap of puss.
I used to get these a lot when I was a kid, 5th-6th grade. I’m 50 now, and I don’t remember the last one I had. Anyway, I don’t recommend this, but I used to take a flashlight and a toothpick, go to the bathroom mirror, and just flick it out onto my tongue then spit it out. Never had any bad symptoms with them. They just kinda appeared. Sometimes, I would just hack them out, like a popcorn hull. Yeah, gross.
Brave girl to post this…only my husband knows I have them…just started out of the blue in the past year! I am going to try thieves next.
Yeah, brave or crazy! LOL
Seems like the only way to truely get rid of them is to remove your tonsills.
LOL. 🙂 Pretty much but nipping them in the bud when you first see them helps. Clove essential oil (diluted) really helped my husband with numbing and zapping the germs too.