I have a long hangy thingy

Improvolone

aka, my uvula
For an amount of time I can't recall, I will have the desire to swallow because something is right there in my throat. Like the inards of a fried cheese stick didn't go all the way down. I looked in the mirror yesterday and saw that my uvula rests upon the back of my tounge.
Is this the culprit? Well then, I want it gone!!!

I plan on seeing a doctor for his advice, but it's bothering the fuck out of me and will continue to do so untill something is done. So what can I do?

BetelguesePDX

Do nothing. Let the surgeon worry about cutting it out (if it gets to that). The soft palate (of which the uvula is a part) bleeds like a slaughtered pig so don't even think about going near your uvula with something sharp.

AlyceInWonderland

Uhg, this happens to me when I get sick. My uvula gets enlarged, and I start to hate everything cause I get so pissed off at that "dude, i need to freaking swallow the damn thing" sensation. Its weird that you've had it for a while now, though. Could be allergies? I get it when I'm around mold, or cats too.

I suggest going to the doctor. He may give you some allergy stuff to make the enlarged uvula shrink. Maybe gargle salt water, that helped me.

G'luck!

Improvolone

IF it comes to removing it, or shrinking it, could this affect my speech at all?

Dulcius_ex_asperis

Not positive on this, but my assumption would be no. Words/sounds are formed by your tongue pressing against your teeth/the roof of your mouth, so it is pretty unlikely that it would affect your speech. Even if it did, you could adjust to it.

Dalboz

Improvolone wrote: »

IF it comes to removing it, or shrinking it, could this affect my speech at all?

Not if you see a surgeon who knows what he's doing. Shaving down the uvula is one of the more permanent treatments for sleep apnea.

Improvolone

Dulcius_ex_asperis wrote: »

Not positive on this, but my assumption would be no. Words/sounds are formed by your tongue pressing against your teeth/the roof of your mouth, so it is pretty unlikely that it would affect your speech. Even if it did, you could adjust to it.

I'll ask my speech teacher about this today, but I'd think it might affect my soft pallate.

MagicPrime

(Did someone make a wang joke?)

You might want to try some numbing Chloroseptic spray in the mean time. It could dull the sensation you're getting.

RNEMESiS42

From Wikipedia:

Function in voice

The uvula plays a key role in the articulation of the sound of the human voice to form the sounds of speech.[2] It functions in tandem with the back of the throat, the palate, and air coming up from the lungs to create a number of guttural and other sounds. Consonants pronounced with the uvula are not found in English; however, languages such as Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Ubykh, and Hmong use uvular consonants to varying degrees. Certain African languages use the uvula to produce click consonants as well. In English (as well as many other languages), it closes to prevent air escaping through the nose when making some sounds.

Unless you speak any of those languages...I wouldn't worry...

Improvolone

I spoke with my voice and speech teacher. Due to a long uvula, I apperantly keep the back of my tounge down more than usual in order to keep my uvula off of my tounge. So, with a new shiny shorter uvula, the back of my tounge will probaby go up, thus affecting certain sounds.
How interesting.

Fristle

Just a month ago I had this problem, but it came on after a head cold. It wouldn't go away, and the sensation of having something at the back of my throat was bothering the hell out of me. I finally took a look in the mirror and the uvula was much larger than it it supposed to be. So I had a doctor check it out, got some antibiotics, and in a few days things were back to normal. I don't suppose this is your situation?