Dealing with tonsilitis in Japan

I don't think I'd ever had tonsilitis as a kid, at least not that I remember, anyway. Sore throats and colds, sure – but never full blown swollen tonsils and the pain that comes with them.

Fast forward to recently. I had a swollen gland on one side of my neck with no cold symptoms, and I assumed I was just run down since life has been busy lately. After about a week of no symptoms, my throat all of a sudden started killing. I got some over the counter meds at my local Welcia, but they didn't really help a ton.

This medicine is in granule form and can be taken without water. It's got anti-inflammatory ingredients (tranexamic acid and licorice extract), but it only helped mildly.

After a couple of days of dealing with the throat pain, I took a look at the back of my throat with the flashlight from my phone and nearly fell over. My tonsils were covered in pus, and very clearly infected. It was one of the most repulsive things I've seen, so off to the doctor I went.

One look at my tonsils and the doctor immediately prescribed antibiotics + some other meds (painkillers) for 5 days. I was advised to come back after those five days if I still felt that the symptoms were persevering. I appreciated that they didn't just go with a 10 day course of antibiotics and preferred to err on the side of caution, but I could understand that some people might be frustrated having to make a return trip to the doctor's office – especially since it's not always what I'd call quick here!

The concoction of pills I had to take 3 x a day for 5 days. Tonsilitis was no joke for me!

Aside from medicine, a few other things I found helpful include:

• Either very cold or warm drinks. I was living off ice cold water and warm tea – it was definitely one of those occasions where I was grateful for having a hot water boiler + a good stash of different teas on hand! Ice cream also helped!
• Running a humidifier in my room at night avoided my throat drying out too much and causing additional pain. I'd highly recommend doing this for any kind of sore throat or respiratory issue you might have.
• Resting! Obviously life still goes on when you're sick to a degree, especially when you have children and a minimal support system as an expat – but I prioritized early nights and really trying to sleep as much as I could.