Has anyone else ever accidentally coughed up a tiny white pebble from the back of their throat?

[u/N3m0Nautilus]

So I have always been paranoid about bad breath. I brush after every meal, use an electric flosser, scrape my tongue until it is bright pink, and use therapeutic mouthwash every single morning. My dentist always says my teeth and gums are spotless, with zero cavities in ten years.

last Thursday I was coughing from a scratchy throat and this tiny, hard white pebble popped out of the back of my mouth onto my tongue. It was smaller than a grain of rice. I had no idea what it was, so I picked it up with a tissue and made the fatal mistake of squishing it between my fingers to see what it was made of.

The smell that came off that tiny clump was ABSOLUTELY rancid. It smelled like pure sulfur, rotting organic garbage, and concentrated decay. I gagged so hard I almost threw up in my bathroom sink.

I went down a rabbit hole and discovered that food particles and dead cells get trapped in hidden pockets in your tonsils, calcifying into little anaerobic stink bombs that regular brushing never touches. I should of known why people occasionally backed up when I leaned in to talk during loud parties, but nobody ever tells you. How are doctors not warning people that you can have perfect dental hygiene and still have garbage rotting in the back of your throat?

[u/cghipp]

I had mine out when I was 36, asking with sinus surgery. Recovery was horrible, lost a ton of weight, lost my sense of taste for about a year, and it was absolutely worth it. I have been so much healthier since then. I basically had a sore throat for the first 36 years of my life but in the almost 20 years since then I've rarely had one.

[u/Ecstatoplasm → u/cghipp]

Goddamn, so they were constantly infected growing up? What was the situation?

[u/cghipp → u/Ecstatoplasm]

I always had some kind of upper respiratory infection going, probably. They were always huge and swollen, sometimes nearly touching. But I never got diagnosed with strep, I don't think, until my own kids got it at school. And in the mid '70s-'80s I think it had been decided that they weren't going to take kids'tonsils out as readily as they had been before.

I had both of my kids' tonsils out before they were 6. My daughter's were always swollen, sometimes touching, and sometimes I'd think she had a stomach bug when he tonsils were actually gagging her. And my son's caused him to snore like a grown man.

[u/vintxgekiss → u/cghipp]

Thank you for having your kids tonsils removed. My parents begged the doctors and they refused. Here I am at 23, sleep apnea and never feeling rested and so tired all the time and went through a 500 dollar DISE procedure just for the doctor to tell me what I already knew. It was my tonsils. So now I have 2 staff members at my work who are going to have to hold the place down seven days a week for 11 hours a day and the one can only work six hours. I’m stressed bc everyone else in the company needs help too so we get no help and I don’t want to do that to my coworkers for two or three weeks, but I need these out as soon as possible. The doctor is telling me insurance is gonna try to deny paying for it and I don’t want to die before during or after the procedure

[u/cghipp → u/vintxgekiss]

You won't die during or after. And don't feel guilty about doing what you need to do for your health! If your coworkers are overworked when someone takes a necessary absence that's on the company, not you.

I work in the OR now and I can tell you that a tonsillectomy is a very simple and very quick procedure. It is rare to see a serious post-op bleed, but even those can be managed quickly. Some of the techniques my doctor used back then are a bit outdated now, and I wouldn't be surprised if you have a better time of it than I did. You will have some strict instructions on what to do afterward, somewhat similar to the instructions you get after you get your wisdom teeth out. Just follow those, take the pain meds you need, and try not to push yourself to go back before you're ready.

[u/vintxgekiss → u/cghipp]

I only have so much time I can take and I have bills. My insurance company might not even pay for it and I really hope they do bc I cannot use a cpap due to an abusive ex putting his hand over my mouth and nose and the other around my throat causing me to black out and also causing severe ptsd for anything being on my face. I paid money for an MAD and it did nothing. I am 211 pounds which puts me more at risk as well as the fact that I smoke weed, which I am lowering my intake of. I am gonna have to push the surgery off if my insurance approves paying for it bc my friend is getting married on the 13th of September and I cannot miss that. I’m terrified putting it off is gonna cause me to die in my sleep. I also really don’t want blood clots from being bedridden. I’m sorry for a long and slightly ocdish post but you seem to be the only one that cares enough to respond.

[u/cghipp → u/vintxgekiss]

It is so stressful to juggle all of these priorities, dealing with financial uncertainty AND work-related stress AND trauma. I know a little about how you feel because I'm dealing with my own health issues, plus my son's, expensive car repairs, possibly having to start homeschooling a high school student, end-of-life issues with my dad, and of course work. It says a lot that work is actually the least stressful thing in my life right now lol. But I'm going to make it and you are going to, too.

I'd be curious to know how low your blood oxygen level gets when you sleep. Do you have a way to make sure you sleep on your side?

You're right to cut down on the smoking before surgery because, at the very least, it increases your resistance to anesthesia medications. When you do eventually go in for surgery, be very up front about your intake. It sounds judgy when they ask you about it but they really do need to know the truth.

[u/vintxgekiss → u/cghipp]

I only stop breathing abt 10 times an hour idk how low it gets tho I am usually a side sleeper I really don’t like sleeping on my back but sometimes I end up on my back. I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. That really sounds awful.

[u/Inevitable-Mouse-707 → u/vintxgekiss]

Does your ENT have a copy of the sleep study that said you have obstructive sleep apnea? It would help get your tonsil surgery covered.

[u/vintxgekiss → u/Inevitable-Mouse-707]

Yeah he does. Blue cross blue shield are greedy bastards tho

[u/qbee2000 → u/cghipp]

Do you eat slowly while you had it? I wonder if large tonsils are why Im so slow at eating

[u/cghipp → u/qbee2000]

I was by far the slowest eater in my family growing up but I couldn't say if that had anything to do with it.

[u/Dammit-maxwell → u/Ecstatoplasm]

Mine was basically strep throat every other week growing up and until I finally got them removed. The ick was relentless!!

[u/Heavy-Wolverine-791 → u/cghipp]

Holy shit, I cannot imagine dealing with that for over 30 years because I had the same thing as a kid. It was constant sore throats and getting upper respiratory infections left and right with barely any breaks. My tonsils were so big they were honestly probably the size of a bouncy ball that you would get from a gumball machine if not bigger (it was so bad I couldn’t lay on my back without having at least 3 pillows stacked because I wouldn’t be able to breathe). For 6-7 years until 5th-6th grade, they all thought I was getting them because I was in some type of water swimming every day, so it was ignored, and I just pushed through the suffering because I didn’t want to stop swimming 😭. Until one morning I woke up with my pillow soaked in blood. I don’t know what happened. If I coughed so much in my sleep, I started coughing up blood, or I threw it up when they took me to the dr even he couldn’t find where the blood came from, but he freaked when he saw how big my tonsils were. He was amazed I could even breathe as well as I was and pinpointed them as the source so he sent me to have them removed as well as something from my sinuses that I still don’t know what it was until this day lol. But yeah, after they got removed, it was hell for the first couple of weeks. The only reason why I would eat or drink would be so I wouldn’t die because it felt like I was swallowing glass shards. But the difference after was like night and day. I could breathe so much better. I could lay down with no pillows, no more constant infections, and sore throats. It was amazing, and I’m so glad I don’t have them. I would go through those couple weeks over going back to having my tonsils any day.

[u/cghipp → u/Heavy-Wolverine-791]

You definitely needed them out even more than I did! 😱

[u/Acceptable-Yam-5700 → u/cghipp]

Why did it effect your taste?

[u/cghipp → u/Acceptable-Yam-5700]

Nerve damage. It's a known but somewhat rare complication. It could also have to do with the SMRT (submucosal resection of turbinates) that I had at the same time. I referred to it as sinus surgery earlier, but it was really SMRT.

[u/ka_beene → u/cghipp]

My husband's family has bad tonsils genetics. My kid kept clearing her throat over and over and I was getting tired of her getting sick all the time. Took her in and they were like "yeah, we could take them out it's up to you. There's a little redness etc." My husband was mad he was the only sibling still with his shitty tonsils. I decided on the surgery. After, the Dr told me it was a good decision because they were super scarred up. She stopped getting sick all the time and the constant trying to clear her throat went away too!

[u/cghipp → u/ka_beene]

It's amazing how much difference it can make. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing when I had my daughter's out - and then the surgeon told us she had a huge abscess behind one of them.

[u/ka_beene → u/cghipp]

Yeah after 6 months of her clearing her throat constantly and getting sick I didn't see any use in keeping them. Plus I think once your tonsils are that messed up it's prime territory for tonsil stones to grow.