Chronic tonsillitis and other ENT issues

[ballerina94]

Since October 2017 I've had issues with my tonsils. I first noticed I had a foul taste in my mouth, one that no matter how many mints I ate or mint water I drank it was still overwhelmingly there, a nasty sore throat and white patches on my tonsils. I just left it, and didn't go to the doctor at first, yet while the white patches started to go, the tonsils got bigger. The taste buds on the back of my mouth became huge. I mentioned this at my dentist appointment and the dentist said "oh it's inflammed but it's normal you don't have to do anything." Normal? they've never been like this in my life. My tongue is always coated and I do my best to clean it out but stuff is still trapped between those gigantic taste buds, I barely had to even clean my tongue before all this, it was always pink and smooth.  

As well as this I've lost a lot of my taste and smell, most food tastes like cardboard, and I can barely smell. I was taking some stuff out of the washing machine, and when it's been there too long or it's overloaded and you get that horrible smell. My mum came in and choked "that stinks it needs rewashing!" I couldn't smell a thing. It's almost like the passage between my nose and mouth is blocked, I also snore when I never used to.

While the white patches have gone (I now still have some white stringy webbed stuff on there, whatever that is) I do get some white/yellowy pus that comes from the tonsils every so often, but not like the original white patches, more like stuff that have come out of the tonsils or the salivary glands, not hard enough to be stones. The back of my throat also often has red patches. The tonsils have NEVER gone down since last October, so it's not reccurent, it just never left, besides the white patches. My ears also have a blocked sticky feeling to them that is affecting my hearing. When the doctor puts the torch in to have a look it hurts, despite her saying it all looks clear.

I've had several times where I've been off work for days when it has been particularly bad, where I feel nauseous and generally unwell, and pretty shivery. I've been off work for a week right now.

I think I also have some sort of salivary gland issue, I had my lymph nodes scanned as they've been up in my neck for this whole time (scan determined they weren't clinically enlarged, however have been palpable despite never having been in the past) and they found that the lump I had behind my left ear was an enlarged parotid gland. And I have discomfort down the sides of my face often. I also get flushed in the face and chest very easily, when I didn't used to.

I used to go to the gym all the time, I loved it. I haven't been since all this started because I can't breathe properly with the back of my nose thing and the tonsils. It's making me beyond depressed. I finally have an ENT appointment in a month's time. I'm in a long distance relationship and I'll be seeing my bf soon. I just feel like a fat lump with bad breath who snores, I don't know how much longer I can go on living like this. Would removal of the tonsils help me? Would they even allow it??? I feel like I'm at my wit's end. I do suffer from anxiety so I don't know if this is why I feel so down but I just have stuck in my head that the ENT is going to say "it's just a virus wait for it to go" and I'll be back where I started.

I saw another doctor today simply for a sick note as I knew I have to wait another month for my ENT. She said my tonsils look large and cryptic.

Is it possible to have a salivary gland issue caused by tonsils? Is it possible that the infection never truly went away and even though there's no white patches it's still brewing underneath and making me ill?