Tonsils

[Rando21]

I’ve seen informative posts here about tonsils. I had a CT PET scan that revealed some activity in my tonsils likely due to some kind of infection. This caused me to think back on past issues I’ve had with my tonsils. I had strep throat annually for years as a child. Seemed like every year for a decade I would have it at least a week.

My concern is not so much that the CLL cells seem to find their way to my tonsils but that at some point my immune system may be so compromised that I get strep again and not be well equipped to fight it off. I’ve heard removing tonsils can reduce that risk but I am not sure if it’s even a valid concern. Should I be more concerned about the CLL cells than future infections? Anyone have any input?

I was diagnosed only a few months ago. This site is very helpful and l appreciate those on here and the site itself.

[cllady01 Former Volunteer]

A CT/PET Scan in CLL is often done to make a decision of whether to biopsy a situation. Is that why you have had the PET scan? At least, it appears your Dr. is investigating the situation to be able to say CLL has infiltrated your tonsils or to say you need to have an antibiotic to treat and infection?

[Rando21 in reply to cllady01]

I started to have night sweats that seemed to only happen in certain areas, a warm feverish feeling, and aches. It was sorta strange the night sweats seemed to only occur bellow my neck and above my chest. Almost like I was sweating only along my collar bone, which is odd. The doctor wanted me to be checked for hot spots and had labs ran to see if my counts were going up. I did have the single largest lymphocyte increase I have had but nothing serious. I was just diagnosed in July and my numbers are low so I felt it was maybe necessary but I suppose it’s a good base line.

For reference my lymphocyte numbers jumped from 7.8-10.2 andy WBC from 13.6 -16.4 in about 2-3 months. Which historically my numbers have averaged about 7% a year from what I can see. I have CBC’s indicating elevated lymphocytes going back to 2016 but was not diagnosed until 2021. This was the first time I had experienced actual symptoms that I could plausibly link to any CLL activity.

I am sorta new to all this so I’m sorta still making sense of it all.

[cllady01 Former Volunteer in reply to Rando21]

Look at your absolute lymphocytes instead of your white blood cells. Usually a blood draw report shows Lymph% AND Lymph#--the # indicating actual/absolute number counted.

The other WBCs include neuts, eosinophils, basophils, monocytes and when you have an infection, depending on the cause (bacterial, viral, fungal) the one or more of these will be elevated because they are called to fight the invader.

I will be interested in what your Dr. suggests next.

[cllady01 Former Volunteer in reply to Rando21]

Here is a lot of reading to get acquainted with CLL: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Esp. find " CLL for DUMMIES" listed and see if that can helps get you a bit more acclimated to what CLL

You may have a lot more questions. We are here and there are some very informed members who are good at "splaining" So ask away.

[cllady01 Former Volunteer]

Also, tonsils are part of the frontline immune system--they help filter out some germy debris.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2...