Since I was five years old (I'm 34 now) and all the way through highschool, I used to get tonsilitis EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN' YEAR! After several years of this pain and chugging penicillin, my family doc REFUSED to take my tonsils out (even after we found out that I had a deviated septum and narrow nasal passages as well which lead to sinus infections on top of ear infections and tonsilitis all at the same time in the years to come). His excuse? It never got that bad. Uhm, okay, I suffered all this for YEARS and he REFUSED to do anything about it...and my mother never took me to another doctor either. So fast forward years later, my tonsils are chronically enlarged, I can choke while drinking water, I can barely breath through my nose, I get constant headaches because I can barely breath through either mouth or nose (though not as many as I had when I was younger), etc...yeah, my problems were never "bad enough" to warrant surgery when I was young. /rant