Severe swollen Uvula on my last dive.

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If your regulator was set to a point where negative pressure was going to affect a part of your body (and I'm not even sure this is possible, it depends on your regulator) it would much more likely have affected your lungs than your uvula. Could you be sensitive to one of the materials used in the regulator?

Best regards,
DDM
 
Some time has passed since the original post, but I'd like to add something that seems like it could be significant, albeit rather strange.

I'm a vacation diver with 88 dives spanning 9 years, but today I experienced for the first time something similar to what the OP describes : swollen uvula, to the point were swallowing is a little bit hard. The feeling is highly unpleasant. The only couple other times in my life where I've had this condition/sensation was after sanding drywall compound without a mask. If remember well, the sensation disappeared after a day, maybe two.

There are two circumstances worth mentioning, the second is the intriguing one :

1 - I've done 8 dives on my current trip. As always, I used rented equipment, but this was the first time I was provided with a regulator that let zero water in. I guess it was in good condition and perfectly adapted to my mouth. I always thought that having a little water seep in was mildly annoying, but now I realize that it has the beneficial effect of keeping your mouth wet. On pretty must each dive this week at some point I would purposefully let a little water in to help with the dryness. Not sure If I did this morning, perhaps not and this could an explanation, at least partial, for the swollen uvula.

2 - Quite strangely, this morning I was diving at the exact spot at the OP, i.e. Palancar Caves in Cozumel! This thread was one of the first Google hits I got after typing something like "scuba swollen throat" so I was kind of shocked with the matching diving spots. Of course it could be a pure coincidence, but I thought it was worth posting.

Ocean waters are made of myriads of things and can have peculiarities. I've had another weird oceanic occurrence in this part of the world when after a dive the silver bracelet that I wear all the time turned completely black. That was in Playa del Carmen, just in front of Cozumel. My bracelet returned to normal after some time, possibly due to friction, and never turned black again. In that specific case, it's hard not to think that something rather unique in the water reacted with the silver...
 
A swollen sore uvula is exceedingly unlikely to be related to dry air or negative pressure. I'd put my money on a viral infection.
 
Some time has passed since the original post, but I'd like to add something that seems like it could be significant, albeit rather strange.

I'm a vacation diver with 88 dives spanning 9 years, but today I experienced for the first time something similar to what the OP describes : swollen uvula, to the point were swallowing is a little bit hard. The feeling is highly unpleasant. The only couple other times in my life where I've had this condition/sensation was after sanding drywall compound without a mask. If remember well, the sensation disappeared after a day, maybe two.

There are two circumstances worth mentioning, the second is the intriguing one :

1 - I've done 8 dives on my current trip. As always, I used rented equipment, but this was the first time I was provided with a regulator that let zero water in. I guess it was in good condition and perfectly adapted to my mouth. I always thought that having a little water seep in was mildly annoying, but now I realize that it has the beneficial effect of keeping your mouth wet. On pretty must each dive this week at some point I would purposefully let a little water in to help with the dryness. Not sure If I did this morning, perhaps not and this could an explanation, at least partial, for the swollen uvula.

2 - Quite strangely, this morning I was diving at the exact spot at the OP, i.e. Palancar Caves in Cozumel! This thread was one of the first Google hits I got after typing something like "scuba swollen throat" so I was kind of shocked with the matching diving spots. Of course it could be a pure coincidence, but I thought it was worth posting.

Ocean waters are made of myriads of things and can have peculiarities. I've had another weird oceanic occurrence in this part of the world when after a dive the silver bracelet that I wear all the time turned completely black. That was in Playa del Carmen, just in front of Cozumel. My bracelet returned to normal after some time, possibly due to friction, and never turned black again. In that specific case, it's hard not to think that something rather unique in the water reacted with the silver...

How are you feeling today?
 
Whenever I start to get a swollen uvula it is my canary in the coal mine. It is the first sign I am getting sick.
 
How are you feeling today?

One day after first getting the symptom, my throat was still slightly irritated but did not feel swollen anymore. Another day later I felt perfectly fine, which makes me lean towards some kind of irritation and not something viral. At no point did I feel sick in a general way. I felt exactly as it did when I suffered from this after sanding drywall (i.e. localized symptom only) which was a clear case of irritation due to breathing an abrasive substance.
 

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