Coconuthead update: Tonsillectomy helped me!

[coconuthead]

It’s been nearly 3 years since I’ve posted here, so I figure I’d give you all an update on my life. I apologized for not posting sooner. I’ve noticed that many of the people who used to post here are no longer here and I’m seeing lots of new users now, so I’ll give a little background. I first joined this forum back in 2011. I was 18 and a freshman in college. I’m now 23 and I graduated college last year (May 2015) with a BA in Accounting. I first knew I had BB when I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade where my friend approached me and told me. It didn’t begin to really affect me until I was 14 and in high school. At one point in college, I tried to commit s*****e and luckily, I failed (I spoke on this in a previous post a few years back). Definitely between ages 15 and 21, I suffered from depression and crippling social anxiety as a result of BB.

I think my last post was about getting a tonsillectomy (I was in my junior year of college at this point), and I actually had the tonsillectomy done the summer after my junior year and found out that my tonsils were the culprit of my BB. I know many people get rid of BB and feel free and they’re able to be themselves again and enjoy life, but it’s easier said than done at least for me. Having BB for so long (in my case 11 years and during the most fundamental stages of life) and having it completely wreck my social life left me self-conscious and socially anxious. I don’t think I will ever be completely who I was prior to having BB. Once I had the tonsillectomy and everything healed, I was still self-conscious even though my breath didn’t stink. I still spoke behind my hand and remained really apprehensive and socially phobic. As time pressed on, things have gotten tremendously better. Prior to having BB or at least before having it really begin to affect me and my life, I was very outgoing and had many friends. Now, I’m an introvert. I have no problem socializing (don’t like small talk much), but after some time I just have to be alone. I think this is a result of having bad breath. And I still wonder every day of my life “what if it comes back”?

My senior year of college, I worked as a data entry clerk which required minimal talking, as I still suffered from social anxiety even though I didn’t have BB anymore, where I was on a computer typing 95% of the time, so I went to school full-time and worked part-time as a data entry clerk. I also did an accounting internship a few months before graduating to get some experience under my belt, which I didn’t even consider doing when I had BB, and another internship (12 weeks) at a large regional bank in the summer after graduating. Right after, I accepted a job as an auditor at a firm and I’m currently studying for the CPA exam.

I’ve been engaged for 2 months to my boyfriend (first boyfriend) of 14 months. He proposed on our one year anniversary in October. This is going to sound weird, but we actually met at a gym. He knows that I once suffered from chronic bad breath, although I met him over a year after having the tonsillectomy. I told him everything about it. My struggles with it, my depression, social anxiety, s*****e attempt, and about this website, which I feel really helped me stay sane and not give in and also was the reason I decided to give the tonsillectomy a try.

I’m genuinely hoping everyone else here finds a cure and that this forum brings you sanity and hope like it did for me. There was one particularly user named Mike (SpongeBob avatar), who I felt really helped me and gave me hope. He was the nicest and most genuine person I connected with on here. I never knew what became of him; he just stopped posting. I don’t know if he found a cure, passed away, gave up, or decided to simply live with his situation. That’s something I’ll probably never know. I was actually thinking about that the other day and it reminded to do an update, just in case others may have wondered about me as I've wondered about Mike. So I’m here to tell you all that I am alive, I don’t have BB anymore, and hoping with everything in me that you all will one day find your cure and not have to deal with it anymore. Good luck and Merry Christmas

[christina]

Congratz!!!

Super happy for you. your story gives me alot of hope that this condition can have an ending

[Attraction]

Thank you very much for taking the time to update us. Very happy for you. I read through some of your posts. You mentioned water fasting - I just completed 2 weeks just like you did! It helped, but the bb is back. I am getting a tonsillectomy in 1 month. Thanks again for sharing your story.

[winter]

coconuthead, do you have nasal BB as well? Also, do you notice an immediate improvement after the tonsillectomy or does it take a while to go away?

BTW, congratz! You got rid of the root cause, so it's not going to come back!

Oh, I think my case is very similar to spygirl's. Anyone know how she is doing or how to contact her?

[coconuthead]

coconuthead, do you have nasal BB as well? Also, do you notice an immediate improvement after the tonsillectomy or does it take a while to go away?

BTW, congratz! You got rid of the root cause, so it's not going to come back!

Oh, I think my case is very similar to spygirl's. Anyone know how she is doing or how to contact her?

Yes, I also had nasal BB which is why I always assumed it was my sinuses and not my tonsils. I had fart breath. It smelled similar to sulfur or rotten eggs and sometimes feces.

After having the tonsillectomy, I was in so much pain. I remember crying the 2nd morning when I woke up; the pain was so unbearable. I barely talked the first few days because of the pain, so I'm really not sure if I had BB then or not. I didn't brush my teeth the first 2 days after the surgery, because even opening my mouth was excruciating. I lost a few lbs. also because I refused to eat because it was so painful to swallow. I do remember having a bitter, metal-like taste in my mouth the first week and a half (mainly towards the back of mouth), but I'm sure that was from the blood and the scabs.

I think towards the end of the 2nd week after the surgery, was when I thought "maybe the tonsillectomy worked". After that metal taste began to go away, the taste in my mouth was not the same. When I had BB, I'd have this foul taste in my mouth. Some mornings I'd wake up and my mouth would taste horrible, even after brushing the previous night. Sometimes I'd taste like how a "musty armpit" smells or how "feces" smell, weird I know, but you know how sometimes you can smell something and taste it at the same time? But anyway, I didn't have that foul taste anymore. It's difficult to describe, but my mouth tasted like water. Meaning, there was no taste there at all; when I hadn't just eaten anything of course. Also, at that time, I was still living at home and going to college and I began to notice that when I'd talk, my brother wouldn't brush his nose anymore. I had gotten so used to him doing that that when he didn't, it was odd and I picked up on it quickly.

For several months after, I was still pretty self-conscious and thought I had bad breath. Sometimes I'd be talking to someone (I was still talking behind my hand at this point) and they'd rub their noses and I'd think "OMG my breath stinks" or "oh no, it came back". At that point, it was in my head. As humans, we tend to brush our noses or scrunch them without no actual reason. We just do that, and I had to tell myself that that's just human nature and my breath doesn't stink. But when you're a sufferer/previous sufferer of BB it's difficult to see past that. We're so focused on that, whereas someone who's never had chronic bad breath, it goes completely over their head. If you pay attention to yourself, you'll notice that sometimes you brush your nose for no apparent reason. You didn't smell anything bad and your nose isn't itching or running, you just rub it just because.

I also had to learn how to not speak behind my hand anymore, as I had been doing that for years because of BB, and look people in the eye when speaking to them. BB had left me really insecure. I had absolutely no confidence whatsoever. And also having had BB has made me really sensitive to others with BB. Honestly, when I run into someone with BB, it's not a deal to me at all. Most people wouldn't even bother holding a conversation with them and when out of sight, they might even talk about them. Not me, I still continue to converse with them, I still treat them like a human being, and I don't talk about them. I know what it's like.

[coconuthead]

Thank you very much for taking the time to update us. Very happy for you. I read through some of your posts. You mentioned water fasting - I just completed 2 weeks just like you did! It helped, but the bb is back. I am getting a tonsillectomy in 1 month. Thanks again for sharing your story.

Good luck. I'm hoping the best for you. The fast didn't help with my BB at all. I was, however, full of energy 4 to 5 days in after making it through hunger pains, headaches, lack of focus etc. Those first few days were tough, but I can honestly say, I had never felt so energized and feather-like before in my life like I did while fasting. The only thing I regret is not breaking it properly. I should've eaten very light like liquid soup or fruit, but I broke my fast with a turkey sandwich and 4 minutes later, I shit myself. Went right through me, I couldn't hold it.

[steffna]

hi coconuthead, congratulations on your success story, I hope to read more of these stories, and that some day this will happen to me too
I only wanted to ask you: did you also have chronic mucus in the back of your throat, forcing you to swallow it every second and clear your throat?
I am trying to understand where mine really comes from...THankyou!

[coconuthead]

hi coconuthead, congratulations on your success story, I hope to read more of these stories, and that some day this will happen to me too
I only wanted to ask you: did you also have chronic mucus in the back of your throat, forcing you to swallow it every second and clear your throat?
I am trying to understand where mine really comes from...THankyou!

No, I didn't but it sounds like you have post nasal drip or sinusitis, which definitely causes bad breath. I think once, years back, someone here cured there BB after taking a very high dosage of Amoxicillin for chronic sinusitis. You could possibly have a deviated septum (which also causes bad breath and post nasal drip) and may need surgery to get it fixed.

[Attraction]

Thank you very much for taking the time to update us. Very happy for you. I read through some of your posts. You mentioned water fasting - I just completed 2 weeks just like you did! It helped, but the bb is back. I am getting a tonsillectomy in 1 month. Thanks again for sharing your story.

Good luck. I'm hoping the best for you. The fast didn't help with my BB at all. I was, however, full of energy 4 to 5 days in after making it through hunger pains, headaches, lack of focus etc. Those first few days were tough, but I can honestly say, I had never felt so energized and feather-like before in my life like I did while fasting. The only thing I regret is not breaking it properly. I should've eaten very light like liquid soup or fruit, but I broke my fast with a turkey sandwich and 4 minutes later, I shit myself. Went right through me, I couldn't hold it.

On a scale from 1-10, how nasty was your white tongue?

[coconuthead]

Thank you very much for taking the time to update us. Very happy for you. I read through some of your posts. You mentioned water fasting - I just completed 2 weeks just like you did! It helped, but the bb is back. I am getting a tonsillectomy in 1 month. Thanks again for sharing your story.

Good luck. I'm hoping the best for you. The fast didn't help with my BB at all. I was, however, full of energy 4 to 5 days in after making it through hunger pains, headaches, lack of focus etc. Those first few days were tough, but I can honestly say, I had never felt so energized and feather-like before in my life like I did while fasting. The only thing I regret is not breaking it properly. I should've eaten very light like liquid soup or fruit, but I broke my fast with a turkey sandwich and 4 minutes later, I shit myself. Went right through me, I couldn't hold it.

On a scale from 1-10, how nasty was your white tongue?

I'd say towards the end of the day, a 5, on average. It really depended on what I ate that day. If I hadn't brushed my teeth/tongue the night before, my tongue would be covered in that white gunk the following morning, especially towards the back of the tongue, so around a 9. To be completely honest, I've not noticed any difference with the white stuff on my tongue after having the tonsillectomy. It's still pretty much the same as it was when I had BB.
The only difference is I can actually go to bed without brushing my teeth and wake up without horrendous morning breath. Before the tonsillectomy that was impossible; my morning breath could blow someone away.

If you notice, people who don't have chronic BB have pretty filthy tongues just as those who do. When I had BB, I would really focus on that. I would always wonder why they had so much gunk on their tongue, yet they didn't have BB. It puzzled me.

[ttylxman2]

Thanks a lot for this post. It was highly encouraging and I know for sure that lot of us needed to see this.

Very interesting story! It was like reading my own life word for word, only it had a happy ending that I can hardly dream of anymore.

Getting married.. the idea is so foreign, so absurd, and inapplicable to the way I feel about myself. The thought of opening myself up to someone for the first time is both exciting and frightening. There's so much I still need to learn about, and many mistakes yet to be made.

I suspected that after ridding myself of this, I'd never truly be the compatible with other people, and would be self-conscious of my breath till the day I die. I've lost half my life to this, including the most important parts for social development. Now I'll be bumbling around as an adult, if I even get to be so lucky as to solve the BB and have a social life and intimate relationships.

At this point, I'd just like to sit down for dinner with my family without worrying my breath is putting them off their meal. There's no opportunity in a life like this to feel like a human being. That's probably the worst part of this entire disease. It's a curse of pure loneliness.

Anyway, I too had a tonsillectomy. I have the same bad taste, the same nasal odor, had tonsil stones and cryptic tonsils, and it really looked like a tonsillectomy+adenoidectomy would at least make a significant change.

It didn't. Not having tonsil stones anymore is fantastic and was worth the pain.

This time, the antibiotics for post-surgery didn't even help my breath. Very strange, normally it clears up completely on any antibiotic I've ever had to take, which makes my mouth taste like "water" as you described, instead of a bitter rotten/fecal taste as is the norm.

I am tackling my PND and sinus congestion head on as I have no other course of action. My ENT said my linguals were fine even though cleaning them out is probably the best way to diminish my breath since I learned about tongue scraping. I am going to have more scans done and insist on a thorough exam of both my linguals and my sinus cavities.

Thanks again for the renewed motivation. It's also nice to see more support for tonsillectomies when people around here were starting to doubt it as a viable cure.

[impactdial]

Well done coconuthead, and thanks alot for returning, Ive come across some of your threads I was searching for information and Im glad your story has a positive end!

If I could just bother you with a few questions. Firstly did you notice anything off about your tonsils? Like looking large or cryptic, and having tonsil stones? And could you smell anything if you touched the area, did you do the back of the tongue self test? And have you noticed a difference in odor since the tonsilectomy? Thanks alot! And congrats to the ent doctor too that picked it up, we need more of them....

[coconuthead]

Well done coconuthead, and thanks alot for returning, Ive come across some of your threads I was searching for information and Im glad your story has a positive end!

If I could just bother you with a few questions. Firstly did you notice anything off about your tonsils? Like looking large or cryptic, and having tonsil stones? And could you smell anything if you touched the area, did you do the back of the tongue self test? And have you noticed a difference in odor since the tonsilectomy? Thanks alot! And congrats to the ent doctor too that picked it up, we need more of them....

I really didn't notice anything off, aside from the tonsil stones. I remember always hocking them out the back of my throat and smashing them, even as a kid, but I always thought it was bits of food coming back up. It wasn't until around late 2011, when I decided to look up what exactly that was and I found out that it was tonsil stones. I think it was Jan 2012 that I started to have this pressure in the center of my face and in my ears and had bad nasal odor, so I went to the ENT and found out I had a sinus infection. I mentioned the tonsil stones to him, but he said to gargle with diluted hydrogen peroxide and he prescribed me Amoxicillin for the sinus infection. I went to a different ENT again around late 2013, with no insurance and paying out of pocket for the visits, because I was just so tired and wanted the bad breath to go away. The ENT took a look and said my tonsils were infected and they needed to come out. He said they looked "a mess"; those were his exact words. I also explained to him about my bad breath and tonsil stones and how my tonsils may be the problem, and he explained it could be possible.

In terms of smell, whenever I'd touched anywhere in my mouth and smelled my finger there was sour/vinegar smell, whether it was in the front, the back, or my tonsils. The back of my mouth just had a stronger vinegary smell. With the "lick test", I'd also have a vinegar smell.

I have noticed a big difference in odor since the tonsillectomy; the main thing, however, is taste. When I had BB, I'd always had a bad taste in my mouth, which came along about an hour or two after brushing. I That's probably how I knew after the tonsillectomy that I didn't have bad breath anymore, because I didn't have a bad taste. After having the tonsillectomy, and I began to heal and the metal taste from the blood and scabs began to go away, I didn't have that bad taste anymore. When I had BB, I'd always chew gum so I wouldn't have to taste it, and I know chewing gum didn't make my breath smell better and it wasn't healthy for my teeth, but it brought me comfort. I remember someone on here recommended I switch to sugar free gum to avoid cavities, so I began chewing Extra and Trident.

Anymore questions, feel free to ask

[coconuthead]

Thanks a lot for this post. It was highly encouraging and I know for sure that lot of us needed to see this.

Very interesting story! It was like reading my own life word for word, only it had a happy ending that I can hardly dream of anymore.

Getting married.. the idea is so foreign, so absurd, and inapplicable to the way I feel about myself. The thought of opening myself up to someone for the first time is both exciting and frightening. There's so much I still need to learn about, and many mistakes yet to be made.

I suspected that after ridding myself of this, I'd never truly be the compatible with other people, and would be self-conscious of my breath till the day I die. I've lost half my life to this, including the most important parts for social development. Now I'll be bumbling around as an adult, if I even get to be so lucky as to solve the BB and have a social life and intimate relationships.

At this point, I'd just like to sit down for dinner with my family without worrying my breath is putting them off their meal. There's no opportunity in a life like this to feel like a human being. That's probably the worst part of this entire disease. It's a curse of pure loneliness.

Anyway, I too had a tonsillectomy. I have the same bad taste, the same nasal odor, had tonsil stones and cryptic tonsils, and it really looked like a tonsillectomy+adenoidectomy would at least make a significant change.

It didn't. Not having tonsil stones anymore is fantastic and was worth the pain.

This time, the antibiotics for post-surgery didn't even help my breath. Very strange, normally it clears up completely on any antibiotic I've ever had to take, which makes my mouth taste like "water" as you described, instead of a bitter rotten/fecal taste as is the norm.

I am tackling my PND and sinus congestion head on as I have no other course of action. My ENT said my linguals were fine even though cleaning them out is probably the best way to diminish my breath since I learned about tongue scraping. I am going to have more scans done and insist on a thorough exam of both my linguals and my sinus cavities.

Thanks again for the renewed motivation. It's also nice to see more support for tonsillectomies when people around here were starting to doubt it as a viable cure.

I completely understand and I empathize with you. I can honestly say having BB has left its damage even though I got rid of it. It's socially and self crippling, especially to those dealing with it during the most fundamentals stage of life, which in my opinion is adolescence to young adult. That is the age of discovery where we are trying to find ourselves, trying to find our place in the world, bonding and beginning to develop relationships; it's destructive beyond belief. I don't have BB, but I still struggle socially. I pretty much had to learn social skills all over again. I lost them when BB began to take control over my life. I remember the initial struggles I had when I first began dating my fiancé. I was so closed in and unresponsive, but he was so patient and I trusted him and opened myself up to him. I still get socially anxious and I'm a strong introvert, and I'm sure as time goes on it will get better and better, but never how it used to be. On the contrary, having had BB has made me more aware. It's made me more of aware of others and sympathize with what they may be going through, even though I may not understand it or it may not seem like a big deal to me. To most people, socially, bad breath is not a big deal. Yeah, to them it's a relationship breaker, a laughing matter, and they find it disgusting, but they don't understand the psychological and social impact it takes on its victims until they actually deal with it themselves.

And I'm glad that my story served as encouragement. Don't give in, I know it's rough but you all can fight this, and I'm so sorry the tonsillectomy didn't work for you. I'm hoping with everything in me you find a cure. Hopefully something great comes from having those scans done and you get to the root cause. If you have any questions or need to talk, please, please feel free

[Saafir99]

It’s been nearly 3 years since I’ve posted here, so I figure I’d give you all an update on my life. I apologized for not posting sooner. I’ve noticed that many of the people who used to post here are no longer here and I’m seeing lots of new users now, so I’ll give a little background. I first joined this forum back in 2011. I was 18 and a freshman in college. I’m now 23 and I graduated college last year (May 2015) with a BA in Accounting. I first knew I had BB when I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade where my friend approached me and told me. It didn’t begin to really affect me until I was 14 and in high school. At one point in college, I tried to commit s*****e and luckily, I failed (I spoke on this in a previous post a few years back). Definitely between ages 15 and 21, I suffered from depression and crippling social anxiety as a result of BB.

I think my last post was about getting a tonsillectomy (I was in my junior year of college at this point), and I actually had the tonsillectomy done the summer after my junior year and found out that my tonsils were the culprit of my BB. I know many people get rid of BB and feel free and they’re able to be themselves again and enjoy life, but it’s easier said than done at least for me. Having BB for so long (in my case 11 years and during the most fundamental stages of life) and having it completely wreck my social life left me self-conscious and socially anxious. I don’t think I will ever be completely who I was prior to having BB. Once I had the tonsillectomy and everything healed, I was still self-conscious even though my breath didn’t stink. I still spoke behind my hand and remained really apprehensive and socially phobic. As time pressed on, things have gotten tremendously better. Prior to having BB or at least before having it really begin to affect me and my life, I was very outgoing and had many friends. Now, I’m an introvert. I have no problem socializing (don’t like small talk much), but after some time I just have to be alone. I think this is a result of having bad breath. And I still wonder every day of my life “what if it comes back”?

My senior year of college, I worked as a data entry clerk which required minimal talking, as I still suffered from social anxiety even though I didn’t have BB anymore, where I was on a computer typing 95% of the time, so I went to school full-time and worked part-time as a data entry clerk. I also did an accounting internship a few months before graduating to get some experience under my belt, which I didn’t even consider doing when I had BB, and another internship (12 weeks) at a large regional bank in the summer after graduating. Right after, I accepted a job as an auditor at a firm and I’m currently studying for the CPA exam.

I’ve been engaged for 2 months to my boyfriend (first boyfriend) of 14 months. He proposed on our one year anniversary in October. This is going to sound weird, but we actually met at a gym. He knows that I once suffered from chronic bad breath, although I met him over a year after having the tonsillectomy. I told him everything about it. My struggles with it, my depression, social anxiety, s*****e attempt, and about this website, which I feel really helped me stay sane and not give in and also was the reason I decided to give the tonsillectomy a try.

I’m genuinely hoping everyone else here finds a cure and that this forum brings you sanity and hope like it did for me. There was one particularly user named Mike (SpongeBob avatar), who I felt really helped me and gave me hope. He was the nicest and most genuine person I connected with on here. I never knew what became of him; he just stopped posting. I don’t know if he found a cure, passed away, gave up, or decided to simply live with his situation. That’s something I’ll probably never know. I was actually thinking about that the other day and it reminded to do an update, just in case others may have wondered about me as I've wondered about Mike. So I’m here to tell you all that I am alive, I don’t have BB anymore, and hoping with everything in me that you all will one day find your cure and not have to deal with it anymore. Good luck and Merry Christmas

Congratulation!