Apr 01 2009
The Uvula
I learned a lot about the uvula last week. Unintentional though it was, I am quite proud of my new-found knowledge of this little-known part of my body. It seems that the thing can cause quite a bit of trouble, too.
I was happily snoring the other night, flat on my back, trying to re-create the deafening sound of a freight train in my room. All of a sudden, I woke up, feeling like I was choking, like there was something caught in my throat. IThis has happened once before, but it was years ago. It felt like I needed to cough something up, and, when I looked in the mirror at the inside of my mouth, I could see whatever it was staring at me at the back of my mouth.
My lymph nodes swelled up some, it hurt to swallow. . .I wasn’t sure what was going on. I called the 24-hour nurse from my insurance company, and she thought I was having some sort of an allergic reaction to something, and her ultimate decision was to tell me to go to the emergency room.
I did a quick WebMD search while I continued to feel choked from the inside, and I found everything from evil bacterial infections to allergic reactions as being the possible cause of my unhappiness. There were pictures of inflamed uvulas, or the hangy-ball things at the back of my throat on my computer screen, but not much else to tell me that that was my problem or why it might be so.
So, I go to the emergency room at 1:20 a.m. and stay there until about 3:40. The final result? I snore, and it made the uvula swell up like an old bullfrog.
