I recently re-discovered the name of the dangly thing at the back of your throat–the uvula. The reason for this re-discovery started back on Wednesday morning when I awoke with mildly irritated sinuses and throat. It felt like I might get one last summer cold this year.
By Friday the sinus part had mostly gone away but the throat part compensated. It was incredibly sore and it felt like I had phlegm caught in the back of it, closing off parts I’d prefer to keep open. Swallowing, even without yummy food or drink involved, hurt a lot.
Saturday evening came and I could take no more, so off I went to the emergency room of Royal Columbian. The nice part about this is it’s two blocks away. I got there at 8 p.m. and left shortly after nine with a prescription and tentative diagnosis.
Basically my throat was infected and the uvula had become so swollen that it was now touching the back of my throat, producing a sensation that was more maddening than anything. The doctor was not sure what the exact cause was as he didn’t think it was strep throat (a bacterial infection usually caught by some goober coughing or sneezing on you on the SkyTrain, Vancouver’s preferred high-speed transmission vector for illnesses). It could possibly be allergies, bad luck, voodoo, who knows?
He cautioned that the medication (Apo-Prednisone) could take a few days to reduce the swelling and also recommended taking an antihistamine, so I picked up some Benadryl for good measure. Drugs drugs drugs!
It’s been a few hours since I took everything (well, the required dose, not actually everything) and it seems to have made a small difference. Maybe it’s a placebo effect and if so, that’s still good enough for me. I’m all for my brain being tricked into being happier.
They did swab my throat for a sample to send to The Lab for strep and I may get a call in 24-48 hours confirming that. If so I will have to take even more drugs, probably for a good ten days or so. Given my history with antibiotics (hint: the wrong ones give me a rash over my entire body) I’m hoping the test comes up negative.
Anyway, I definitely recommend not getting your uvula infected if you can avoid it. It’s effective as a weight loss measure as the thought of eating or drinking anything becomes repellant but I’d rather get my sexy figure back another way.