Hi all, I am a 27 year old male, none smoker may have 3 or 4 beers a week when I am really drinking hard, so pretty healthy lifestyle in general. On the weekend just gone, I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a bad feeling of heart burn, I then went and had a good few vomits which had some blood (sorry for being so graphic, just trying to paint the picture) and my mouth and throat was sooo sore, I went into the bathroom to have a look and see how red it was inside my mouth, and saw that my uvula if thats what it is, the hangy bit above the back of your tongue, was massive! about 3 or 4 times its normal size, swollen and red as red could be, it is about 2 days later and it has not gone down any, I still feel ill and feel dizzy, I have seen another post that seems similar to how I feel. Would this go down on its own, or would I be best to have it seen to? It sure makes eating a pain, I am not so sore at the moment, but it is still longer than normal...

Hi Sean,

Warning! I'm not a doc nor do I play one on tv.

I thought this was a really interesting question. At some point in our lives we wonder why that thing is there and some of us dismiss it as a useless appendage (turns out we were wrong).

I did some googling and found lots of information, most of it stating that a swollen uvula is rather benign (usually caused by snoring, dehydration, smoking, second-hand smoke, fires, alcohol, dust particles, etc.,) and very little that suggested it was all that worrisome beyond an inflammation or infection. There are a few rather rare things: Quincke's Disease and the Palatine Tonsil, but rare is the key word here. Everything says that if it's still bothering you after 2 or so days, see a doctor.

The scariest thing I read? Some people get uvula piercings! I thought I'd seen 'em all, or (ahem) pictures of 'em all. Yikes!

Sean - it's time to see a doc. Those of us in countries that do not have national health care scratch our heads and wonder WTH you're waiting for? Fortunately I've got great insurance and believe me, I no longer let anything go beyond a few days.

See a doc and then let us know what the diagnosis is.

Take care buddy,

Mimi