The evilness that is tonsilitis

Yes, I'm fairly certain that I've got tonsilitis. I thought I'd gotten over that stage in my life but apparently not. My throat is swollen, it hurts to swallow and it's even affecting my ears. Where are a nice packet or three of strepsils when you need them? I eat them almost like sweets when I've been like this in the past, and yes I am aware that that is technically an OD but it hasn't done me any damage so far.

I'm only moaning on here because if I moaned to a particular mate of mine, he'd make me try some of the foul smelling cough syrup he has. It appears to be Russian in origin and looks like a bottle of cough syrup, but the fun begins once you look at the ingredients list. The list begins with some nasty sounding chemicals, I can't recall their names off-hand but trust me, they don't sound edible. We then move on the ingredients that worried me in particular; chloroform is in there, something that people will probably recall as a film noir method of incapacitating someone (or as an old anaesthetic), but is also a toxic substance. A nice little sentence on Wikipedia states "Chloroform once appeared in toothpastes, cough syrups, ointments, and other pharmaceuticals, but it has been banned in consumer products in the United States since 1976." Anaesthetic ether is also listed amongst the ingredients, another anaesthetic. I do remember using this stuff in a lab practical, for knocking out fruit flies.

None of these ingredients make me want to get near to the stuff, although I did ask him what he thought about it and apparently one gulp of the stuff is enough to stop you coughing for hours. Somehow I'm not surprised.

Edit: After a night of tossing and turning with a fever, I'd gladly take the health hazard cough syrup just so long as I got to sleep peacefully (no doubt I would with the chloroform).

I did sleep well in the end but only after a dose of co-codamol and only for two hours. Now I have the hours drive to work...

Edit Edit: Scratch what I said earlier, I don't have tonsilitis, I have the flu. Owww, I'm so achy! Well I hope it's the flu because if not it could be meningitis. Mum is standing with her trusty, freezing cold glass at the ready in case I get a rash.