Uvular Necrosis Caused by Impingement During Intubation (Day 4 Onward)

This is a continuation of my prior post, Uvular Necrosis Caused by Impingement During Intubation (Days 1-3).

As you might recall, I recently underwent a relatively low-risk procedure that required general anesthesia, and was intubated. The procedure went fine, with no complications, but the intubation caused severe ulcerations of my uvula and the tissues surrounding my soft palate. Ultimately leading to Uvular Necrosis.

(The side joke is that my doctor, after speaking with the anesthesiologist that caused this, said that this was just inflammation. Feel free to comment on what you think about that.)

Four Days Later

It has been four days since my procedure. The uvulitis (swelling of my uvula) has gradually diminished, but is still present.

The change, however, is that there is a darkening of the necrotic tissue on the posterior uvula, which you can see in both pictures, Day 4.1 and Day 4.2. The necrotic anterior uvula remains completely white. My throat remains very sore — almost as bad as the day I came home from the hospital. I suspect that is because I had to go to work and talk for most of the day, aggravating my throat.

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I think that tomorrow I might need to go to the doctor at my work, to see if he recommends any particular treatment. I’ll keep you posted.

Day 5 – Big Changes!

When I woke up this morning, the necrotic tissue was falling off!

I had a terrible sore throat when I got out of bed, so the first thing I did was look in the mirror. I was so excited to see that it was finally sloughing off – just like some of the articles I read had predicted. The dead skin was obviously loose, so I reached in with a pair of tweezers, grabbed it, and gently pulled. The other half was still attached, but it came off easily enough. Despite looking white in my mouth, it had a much darker color when I placed it on my sink. I know, it looks gross, but I was so relieved to have it out of my mouth.

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Now I have a ‘nub’. Apparently, not all of the dead tissue came off. You can see the little nub end of my uvula, with some dead/scarred tissue still on it. I also have a small white dot on the back of my uvula (not shown), a little ways away from the nub. Maybe I didn’t see the white dot before… maybe more of my tissue is dying. Not sure yet.

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But I will say that today was one of the worst days for my sore throat. Yes, Day 5! I thought the pain would subside when the necrotic tissue came off, but it only got worse. I’ve been taking pain relievers and using a ton of oral anesthetic spray, and it helps for maybe a couple minutes. I’m hoping tomorrow will be better.

Day 9 – My Uvula is Healing Well, but…

There are two different things going on at this point. First, the necrotic skin in largely gone. There is still a small nub of damaged skin at the very end, but honestly, it seems to be healing fairly well. The difference in the health of my uvula between Day 5 and Day 9 is fairly small — but it is still quite nice to see that it is healing so well. I am still suffering from a small amount of uvulitis, which you can see in my still-rather-enlarged uvula. So this, I’m happy with.

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… The Pain Won’t Stop (Due to an Ulcer)

What I am NOT happy with is that a throat ulcer (or lesion) had developed in my mouth. I had to do some digging on this, and found a great article that describes what they are here. From what I can tell, this appears to be an aphthous ulcer. These types of ulcers do not have a known cause according to science. Granted, I’m slightly biased in thinking it had something to do with the massive tissue trauma that caused my necrosis, but not 100% sure.

There is no known treatment for these types of ulcers, but it is suggested to avoid eating foods that aggravate the ulcer, causing more pain, including spicy and salty foods. Chlorhexidine mouthwash is also recommended, as it may help the ulcer heal more quickly and reduces the chance of a secondary infection. However, given how chlorhexidine can cause teeth staining, I’m very hesitant to try that.

For now, I’m gargling with salt water frequently, and using Listerine antiseptic mouthwash to help minimize bacterial growth. It hurts most of the day, particularly when I swallow, but the pain is less than when my necrosis was at its worst. I’m hoping it goes away soon, but I understand it may last as long as a couple weeks. Fingers crossed.

It is unfortunate that my uvular necrosis story had to end with a whimper and not a bang. I wish it had fallen off and I had immediately felt better, as that would have been a much happier story than developing an aphthous throat ulcer right when the necrotic tissue sloughed off.

Regardless, I think I’m finally on the road to recovery. I’ll update this blog should things change, but at this point, I hope the story is approaching the ending.