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Peritonsillar abscess (PTA), also known as a quinsy or quinsey, is a recognized complication of tonsillitis and consists of a collection of pus beside the tonsil in what is referred to as peritonsilar space (peri—meaning surrounding). It is a commonly encountered otorhinolaryngological (ENT) emergency.

I suffered from severe tonsillitis for many years as a child and a teenager in the 70’s when there was a shift by many doctors (GP’s) at the time, from removing infected tonsils to just treating the infection with antibiotics and treating the symptoms with drugs like Codeine. But I was constantly sick, my immune system was so compromised that I caught just about every bug that came around.

The worst was in 1978 when I had several colds, one after another, and then severe strep infections one after another, and then caught the Russian Flu that laid me in bed for over a week and was so sick that for a time I was actually hoping for death, followed by the so called “walking pneumonia” meaning one day I was walking, the next I was bedridden the next I was back up walking, the next bedridden again – my mother had it too and for her it developed into pleurisy and bacterial pneumonia. My throat was so constantly sore and my tonsils so inflamed that I couldn’t and didn’t want to eat and I lost a lot of weight, becoming painfully and unhealthily thin, yet our family GP kept telling my parents that tonsillectomies were out of “fashion” and not necessary. FWIW, this GP was also not in favor of vaccinations.

While there is no vaccination for tonsillitis, our GP failed to recognize how very serious my condition was becoming.

The week was graduating from HS, I caught yet another “cold” and tonsillitis so bad that not only could I not swallow nor I could I eat but this time I could barely breathe and I had a very high fever that jut wouldn’t go away. I barely made it to my graduation and went straight to bed afterwards.

My parents finally took me to an ENT and when he examined me, the first words out of his mouth were “Oh my God!” My tonsils were so badly infected and evidently so chronically infected over such a long period of time, he told my parents that he was amazed that I hadn’t gone “septic” (I might have had quinsy, I don’t remember) all I know was he told my parents that getting them out was an emergency surgery situation and that I could actually die if this remained untreated, i.e. had my infected tonsils removed. I was admitted to the hospital the very next morning and I had them taken out two days later and it was the best thing that ever happened. A week of recovery, but then afterward, I slowly regained my strength and my immune system and I stopped getting sick all the time.