…Because I’m about ready to hack this one out of my mouth. Damn thing swelling up, giving me the gag reflex if I lean forward, flopping out over my tongue when I sneeze.
It wouldn’t be so bad if I weren’t on a business trip and I really really really do not want to go to the E.R. for a lousy friggin’ overexcited uvula. Probably triggered by all the weird-ass cottonwood crap falling out of the skies.
Oh jeez, I just leaned over again. I want to puke and swallow at the same time.
This thing’s coming out right now. I know I have a pair of toenail clippers in my luggage…
My mother has no uvula. When she was a kid, her doctor removed it by mistake when she had her tonsils taken out. Not kidding, she has no hangy-downy thing at all. Just thought I would share.
Ah, Dude! I thought it said vulva!
Oooh, we’re uvula-less mother friends! Except mine had hers removed to reduce snoring.
(it didn’t work)
This is random but my hangy downy thing doesn’t hang. its actually stuck to the roof of my mouth. which is nice because i have less of a gag reflex than most people…
I had the same uvula condition about two months ago. Made me nuts. WebMD or something said that if it doesn’t go back to normal within a day, see a doctor. Luckily, mine did.
So did I! And this thread immediately follows the “Tampons Suck” thread. For a moment I thought I had something for sequential threads!
Subway Prophet, dude, don’t go to the ER. It’ll cost you $1000 walking in the door.
Go to one of the local doc-in-a-box places, where they charge a regular doctor’s visit. If you’re staying at a hotel, the desk person will probably know where the nearest one is.
Just came in to say…
It’ll behoove ya
to care for your uv’la!
(Old SNL flashback.)
A chronic case of uvulitis inspired my user name. Mine used to swell up so large that it would lie across my tongue like a giant nightcrawler. I could chew on it, but that only made it get worse.
There are two temporary treatments that helped me:
[ol]
[li]Ice water loaded with crushed ice. Sip it slowly, include bits of ice with every sip, and “half-swallow” it, letting the ice chips and water linger in the back of your throat. The cold will bring down the swelling in an hour or two, which seems like forever in the middle of the night.[/li][li]Extra strong Jamaican-style ginger beer, the kind that’s really goddamn spicy (if you live in/near the Carolinas, I highly recommend Blenheim’s “hottest” variety.) For some reason, the counter-irritant of the ginger works like magic to kill the gag reflex and bring the swelling down. That always worked best for me.[/li][/ol]
Thank you for the single most horrifying mental image of the week. I won’t need anymore coffee today!
What’s a uvula for, anyway?
Apparently not anything of great importance, considering how many people in this thread alone have had theirs removed. Still sporting mine.
It allows you to pronounce uvular consonants. I’m betting these no-uvula people are not going to be learning Kazakh, Inuktitut, Quechua, or Hmong anytime soon, to say nothing of French or Castilian Spanish.
Seriously, though, it helps to close off the nasopharynx when you swallow, so food doesn’t back up your nose.
Oh, and while we’re at it: uvula piercing. Gah.
Some years ago, my uvula was removed as part of a UPPP - surgery with the noble, if only occasional, intent to reduce apnea and snoring. Post-op, I was snore-free for a few months, but my body stubbornly adapted and I snore as bad as ever now, even without a uvula or soft palate.
The funny thing was when I went back to work, and Ricky had a morbid fascination with well, morbid things, and wanted to see what my throat looked like. I obliged and opened wide. He peers in, recoils in horror and gasps “They took your screamer!”
Thanks. I laughed so hard, my uvula’s hanging bottom lip.
I never thought about the trick with the crushed ice. I’m going to go do that right now.
(Damn gerbil-monkeys in the SDMB server took a smoke break while I was trying to correct that.)
There used to be hundreds of people talking about their swollen uvulas here but now it’s gone! 
I remember one guy talking about how he awoke to discover there was a slug sitting in his mouth…
-FrL-