Giant Tonsil Stone

I hope someone out there gets reads this and can help. I have had what appeared to be a large growth in my throat for nearing 9 months now. I had seen lots of doctors and they couldn’t figure it out. This was a growth seemingly inside of the palatoglossal arch, above my right tonsil (NOT on my tonsil). It was completely covered by plain old soft palate tissue. It was very hard and mimicked the shape of the palatoglossal arch. A couple of weeks ago I went to see a specialist at the UW Hospital, there he told me that I likely had an abscess or cancer, and scheduled surgery. During my per-op screening today, a CT scan was taken. After they had process the image and what not, I found out that I have a giant tonsillolith. I did a bunch of searching and a similar case with a woman (55yrs old) with one similar in size. On the CT scan, the tonsil stone had the same contrast as bone (very bright white on the image), and is clearly bigger than the one in the image about this woman. In fact here is the link to the site

http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?pid=S1698-44472005000300008&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

sorry its in Spanish, but there is a link for a pdf version on the right, which has images. After feeling around back there today, I could feel the edge of it. Perhaps I could post the images of the CT when I get them? Anyway, this thing is massive, and nearly completely covered in tissue. So much so that it has distended (spelling?)  the tissue in my palatoglossal arch clear to my uvula. The hardening extends down in a downward curving fashion, but currently also pushes the edge of my tonsil nearly to the center of my throat. I managed to catch the edge of it with my nail, and tried pulling downward. After doing this I discovered that it has pretty much adhered to the tissue it’s surrounded by. I have a surgery planned for next month to have this and my tonsils removed, but was wondering if anyone had some ideas for removing this crazy thing without surgery?

Please note this is real. My ENT doctor, and all of his assistants where floored. Even the radiology worker was blown away. Apparently this is extremely rare, considering the size and location. I cant see this thing. Like I said its entirely hidden by soft tissue, the plain old pick tissue lining the archway of your throat. It has clearly enlarged the entire area, hence the doctor assuming it might be cancer. I have good oral hygiene. Brush twice a day, and regularly use mouthwash. I clean my tongue with each brushing, and in addition, I drink a lot of water. Generally my breath didn’t smell. That is until recently. When this thing really started to hurt, and protrude into my throat, my girl friend noticed worsening breath.

[ttugolfer]

Have you had surgery yet? If so, how did it go? I have tonsil stones too, but mine are about half the size of a dime. I hope you are doing fine and the surgery was successful!

[tonsilpik]

Best treatment I could find for tonsil stones was on http://www.tonsilpik.com

Oral Irrigators for the win!