Future Tonsilectomy?

I grew up with tonsils from hell.  Between the constant battles with strep throat and ear infections, I had tubes in at 3 and adnoids out.  Doctors (where we lived in Lima, Ohio) refused to take out the tonsils much to my parents' chagrin.  Fast forward 7 years - keeping in mind the horrible bouts with strep throat - to when we moved to Toledo and a doctor saw me.  The first thing he said was "Why does she still have her tonsils?!"  Needless to say, they were removed and it would be another 10 years or so before I got strep throat again.  My dad also had to have his removed so I ultimately blame him.  ;)  And while Bill still has his, they are very large. 

It's very rare for a young child (i.e. a 2 1/2 year old) to get strep throat so when I took Audrey in to the doctor with a high fever at the end of May - the week before Vivian was due - the doctor swabbed for strep but told me it's very unlikely she had it.  Imagine my surprise (and her's, to be fair) when she came back and said it tested positive.  Poor Audrey's tonsils were bright red and huge.  I immediately worried that she was headed down the same dreaded path I took.  We gave her the round of meds but then two weeks after Viv was born, so three weeks later, Audrey developed another fever and complained of a sore throat.  I took in her and luckily, it wasn't strep this time but the doctor said the tonsils were still enflamed.  This brings us to yesterday.  Audrey has had a constant nasty cough and runny nose since that last appointment but yesterday she woke up with goopy, red eyes.  I was thinking pink eye and took her in AGAIN.  (For the record, I'm not usually this doctor happy. I'm usually a "wait it out and see" type mommy.)  Well, it wasn't pink eye but a raging sinus infection, major fluid on the ear and again, you guessed it, ginormous tonsils.  I'm guessing they never went down.  She's now on a 14! day antibiotic and a nose spray that includes a steroid.  The thought is that the spray will drip down onto her tonsils and shrink them (gross, right?) and we have to give it a month.  If it doesn't work, we're off to ENT for what I'm guessing will be a decision on whether or not to take them out.  I kind of want to jump to that step already because I'm not thrilled with the prospect of having her on a steroid.  The doctor basically said that if it does shrink them, we'll use them as needed in the future.  I'm thinking that I'd rather just have them out than constantly be dealing with sickness and 'roids.  Besides, Audrey is already causing the doctor concern due to her tiny size.  She's 26 months old and only weighs 23 lbs (even though her daily school sheet often says she's had second helpings of everything!). I don't want her stunted any more. 

So check out these babies and in another month, we'll see if they've shrunk.