I have experienced and continue to experience the following symptoms for many years:
1) chronic ear infections, sometimes alleveated by antibiotics
2) trouble breathing through my nose(sleep with my mouth open)
3) chronic sore throats, again sometimes alleveated with antibiotics
4) feeling of fatigue
I went to an ENT and he ordered a CAT scan and also suggested that I may be candidate to have my tonsils removed. (CAT scan is scheduled in a couple of weeks)
Can you give some insight on how abnormal tonsils could have an effect on items 1 and 2 from above?
I can see how abnormal tonsils could contribute to item 3 from above.
I also can see that item 4 is a result of items 1-3.
Both my Father and Sister had thier adenoids taken out; so, I wonder how the adenoids play into all this. In addition, my two year old daughter went through numerous ear infections before having some success with a long-term low dose antibiotic that was prescribed to her from an ENT.
Any information or advice you could give me would be great.
Thanks.
Reply -------------------------
It is unlikely that chronic tonsil infection or inflammation would be directly associated with recurrent ear infections. Furthermore, unless the tonsils were huge, it is also doubtful that the tonsils have much relationship to chronic difficulty breathing through the nose. Adenoid tissue, if it is not removed during childhood because of disease, typically atrophies or shrinks after teenage years. Adenoid enlargement and/or chronic adenoid infection in an adult would be a very unusual problem and would warrant an evaluation of the entire immune system. I would suspect that in an adult, chronic sinus disease would be a more common cause of the constellation of problems such as you describe. A CT scan of the sinuses would be recommended if the symptoms have been chronic (in excess of several months) and have persisted despite antibiotic therapy.
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Steve Dankle, MD
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Milwaukee, Wis
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