My dad had this surgery in the late 90s. Hopefully it's better by now because, yeah, yikes is right.
I remember him spraying antiseptic in his mouth for a few weeks after it was over and almost screaming at the pain every time. It must have been a requirement because there's no way anyone would volunteer for that kind of pain.
The real kick in the teeth was that it didn't actually help either.. He still snored like crazy and the restless leg syndrome (although now I think it's called periodic limb movement disorder) was unchanged.
Your uvula is that punching bag like thingy in the back of your throat. Sounds made at or near that are called uvular.
Seems odd to me that removing someone's uvula would cure sleep apnea. I would think it would not be so easy. Of course we don't have the whole story here, right?
It's not exceptionally common, but for some individuals the uvula is big enough or shaped well enough, or the throat small enough, or the opening of the throat after the tongue relaxes becomes small enough, that the uvula can lay over it, and contribute to obstructive sleep apnea!
There are likely other factors, but removing the uvula is just one of the many corrective actions available for surgery to improve sleep apnea!
Wait until you learn hebrew, its a combination of around 18 languages:
Biblical hebrew,
Almost all variations of Arabiyu (they are different languages, as they areny mutually inteligable),
Yiddish,
English,
Spanish,
Russian
Polish,
Urdu,
Italian,
Koine Greek,
German,
Akkadian,
Egyptian/Coptic,
and probably other ones i dont know