sea sickness!!

[Jax]

One thing we tried to do with our divers, if all else fails, and you know you won't be diving that day is to get into your wet suit, with no gear or weights on and hang on the Gerry line while the other guys are doing their dives. This may sound crazy, and many of sick divers won't even think of this as an alternative, but once you're off the boat, all the rocking and rolling goes away. You just rise and fall with the swells, and the motion is 1/10 of what you are getting on the boat. Stay back away from the other divers. Experienced guys know what's going on when they see you, so don't think they will be bothered. As I say, just stay back a little way, wear a PFD, and take a small line to tie your wrist to the line. Tell the DM you are doing this, and they will keep their eye on you.

Okay, I have to drop the BS flag on this.

For some of us, it is the elevator motion that works against us, the up-and-down on the waves. I am just as sick ON the water, sometimes worse. It lasts to about 10fsw. I dread coming up from my safety stop.

I must note that I've run into only two people that are affected as badly as me, and they, too, relate that it is the up-and-down, and not the rock-and-roll, that get to them.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Yes, physiologically, it is the miscommunication between the eyes and ears. Many people who don't get sea sick/understand sea sickness try to tell those of us who do that it's all in your mind. Insinuating that we just think ourselves in to throwing up and feeling miserable all day. Not!

As for the original post....
I use Bonine to the full extent of recommeded dosage every morning. Dramamine and the scopalamine patch don't work for me. Sipping ice cold water on the boat is helpful to me as well. By the 3rd or 4th day of a trip I have adjusted and no longer get sea sick. I usually have some sea sickness the first days of any trip if the seas are not flat.
Stay out of the head and the cabin- when you are prone to sea sickness- the devil lives in there.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Like Dramamine, Stugeron (cinnarizine) is an antihistamine and accordingly has a similar side effect profile...

WARNINGS:
This medicine may lead to drowsiness and impaired concentration, which may be aggravated by simultaneous intake of alcohol or other central nervous system depressants. Patients should not operate hazardous machinery or drive motor vehicles or perform potentially hazardous tasks where loss of concentration may lead to accidents.

SIDE-EFFECTS AND SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS:
The most common antihistaminic side-effect of cinnarizine is sedation which can vary from slight drowsiness to deep sleep, and including inability to concentrate, lassitude, dizziness, and incoordination. Sedative effects, when they occur, may diminish after a few days.

Other side-effects include gastro-intestinal disturbances such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation, anorexia or increased appetite and epigastric pain.
Somnolence and gastro-intestinal disturbances are usually transient and may often be prevented by achieving the optimum dosage gradually.

Cinnarizine may also produce antimuscarinic effects such as blurred vision, difficulty in micturition, dysuria, dryness of mouth and tightness of chest.

Central effects may include muscular weakness, headache and euphoria.

Weight gain, perspiration or allergic reactions may be observed. Cases of lichen planus and lupus-like symptoms and an isolated case of cholestatic jaundice have been reported.

In elderly people cases of aggravation or an appearance of extrapyramidal symptoms sometimes associated with depressive feelings have been described during prolonged therapy. The treatment should be discontinued in such cases.

Cinnarizine may enhance the sedative effect of central nervous system depressants including alcohol, barbiturates, hypnotics, narcotic analgesics, tricyclic antidepressants, sedatives and tranquillisers.

The side-effects of anticholinergic substances such as atropine and tricyclic antidepressants may be enhanced by the concomitant administration of antihistamines.
Monoamine-oxidase inhibitors may enhance the antimuscarinic effects of antihistamines.

Because of its antihistamine effect, STUGERON tablets may prevent otherwise positive reactions to dermal reactivity indicators if used up to 4 days prior to skin testing.

That's nice. I don't give a crap what it says. I've had fifty or so people who use it and testify that it does Not affect them like Dramamine. So, read all you want. I never said it wasn't the same type of drug, just that it worked much much better.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

We also have a woman here who gets violently seasick looking at the dock. Stepping on the floating dock has been impossible, much less the boat. We tried something we "heard" about. She put one earplug in her left ear. That's all. And she sailed for hours on our sailboat. She has been boating every weekend for a year now. One earplug- left ear. I lay no claim to knowledge if it will work with anyone, but it sure did with her. Odd.

 

[k ellis]

Once this guy looked at me and said that he was going to throw up. And then he proceeded to vomit all over me. Why didn't he turn his head and vomit overboard?

Thankfully vomit doesn't bother me. Poo-poo, on the other hand... You can puke on me, but don't poo-poo on me.

Isnt that the nastiest feeling though. All I could do when she puked on me was just ask "Why?" Had she have not been younger and attractive Id of probably been a little diffrent of how I handled it LOL.

I can handle the after effects I just cant handle the sound of someone puking.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

Hi Jax:

Drop/fly your BS flag all you want.........your opinion counts too, just like mine. I've put divers in the water (rollers, not white caps) many times, and it has helped when I check with the sick diver (and I've checked on them often).

I've never seen a diver sick at a safety stop, if they let the rode ride up and down through their hand grip, instead of hold on extremely tight. But I know I've haven't seen it all, so I guess there will be a time that I do (I hope not).

Don't forget to pick up/lower the flag at sunset......................

Okay, I have to drop the BS flag on this.

For some of us, it is the elevator motion that works against us, the up-and-down on the waves. I am just as sick ON the water, sometimes worse. It lasts to about 10fsw. I dread coming up from my safety stop.

I must note that I've run into only two people that are affected as badly as me, and they, too, relate that it is the up-and-down, and not the rock-and-roll, that get to them.

 

[Marek K]

I must note that I've run into only two people that are affected as badly as me

You've never met my wife. She'd give you a run for your money, seasickness-wise.

Whether something works for a particular individual, and what kind of side effects there are, depends very much on the individual. So when someone claims a certain medication doesn't have any side effects, that means for them or the people they've talked with.

Like, scopolamine worked moderately-well for my wife about 20 years ago -- certainly better than dramamine -- but the side effects were unacceptable... Something about seeing devil-horns growing out of the head of one of my work buddies...

She's going to try Triptone next...

 

[orm]

I get so tired of people who have no clue saying that sea sickness is "all in the mind".
Clearly you know nothing about seasickness.

Clearly it is a physiological occurrence, but it's how the brain interprets this is how we deal with it.

Being ill is just the body's protection system flushing as it feels it's being poisoned in some way. So, if we're not being poisoned we're clearly mis-reading the signals and providing wrong information. In the brain.

People get over sea-sickness over time. Some don't admittedly, but others do.

If this tires you out so much, please take a nap.



From Wiki:

Cause

The most common hypothesis for the cause of motion sickness is that it functions as a defense mechanism against neurotoxins.[7] The area postrema in the brain is responsible for inducing vomiting when poisons are detected, and for resolving conflicts between vision and balance. When feeling motion but not seeing it (for example, in a ship with no windows), the inner ear transmits to the brain that it senses motion, but the eyes tell the brain that everything is still. As a result of the disconcordance, the brain will come to the conclusion that one of them is hallucinating and further conclude that the hallucination is due to poison ingestion. The brain responds by inducing vomiting, to clear the supposed toxin.

 

[orm]

There's some talk of hyoscine causing problems.

Travel sickness pills increase the chance of DCI

 

[Marek K]

There's some talk of hyoscine causing problems.

Travel sickness pills increase the chance of DCI

That's the same as scopolamine.

Other than hearsay (I'm not even sure what a "pot doctor" is, but it doesn't sound horribly reliable ), I don't see anything after doing a cursory Internet search.