Physical reaction to diving

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… me feeling sea sick for a day…

…If you were still nauseated and dizzy a day or more after diving, I wonder if you really didn't equalize your ears well...

…as my one ear did not clear properly…

Sounds like part of the mystery may be solved. By the way, TSandM is an actual physician in real life and well respected for her advice (both medical and scuba) here on ScubaBoard.

Next time, focus on equalizing. There’s scads of advice out there, and the second video at this site: Doc's Diving Medicine Home Page is widely recommended. I’m partial to passive techniques such as yawns and jaw thrusts.

but:

…we did not feel so good. Fuzzy heads…
remains. Might also be related to equalizing, or something entirely different. Could you elaborate on “Fuzzy heads”?
 
Feeling tired is ok. Diving is a lot of exercise while your are preparing (moving tanks around, setting up gear, etc) as well as the physical activity in the water.

Pain is bad. That should be checked out immediately. Sometimes it can just be that your tired or hurt a muscle. Get DAN insurance and use it. That is what it is for and they give you lists of people who will know how to relate medical conditions to diving.

Your other question about seasickness treatments. My wife usually takes a dramamine about 30-45 minutes before stepping on the boat. As long as you are not spending all day on the boat it should last you.

Final thoughts: drink water, get plenty of exercise, and look into nitrox certification. Many of my older friends report this has a huge effect on their energy levels after diving and is considerably safer if used correctly.
 
I would recommend a prescription for the scopolamine patch, since you will be on a boat for a long period of time and prone to sea sickness. The only real drawback to the patch is that it sometimes falls off. I know that some people will put a bit of tape over the patch to help secure it. The key is to have very clean,dry skin before applying it behind your ear.
If you still have a bit of sickness,despite the patch try some ginger-candied ginger or ginger tea are good.
It sounds to me like you probably didn't equalize well and often enough. Practice equalizing at home in your living room and read the link,watch the You Tube video. Equalize before you even put your head under the water and continue to equalize often, almost constantly in the first 10-12 feet of the water column. As you get deeper, you won't need to clear as often. You may find that its easier to clear now that the wax was removed, too.
Enjoy Raj Ampat, I've heard its great. If you like reading, There's a very funny book written by an instructor that I loved about that called "Lost Wife,Saw Barracuda". Actually, I think its about Sharm El Sheikh but you might enjoy it since it does include a lot of stories about students getting their Ow certifications, from the instructor's point of view. Its available on Kindle.
 
All good advice. Of course I have felt tired after dives--when I started and now. I'm 59 and feel tired after a lot of things... Can't comment on the seasickness--am one of the lucky ones. If it occurs on boat dives this is common. If shore diving I have never seen or heard of this. Just curious as to how many of your diving freinds said these other feelings are normal?
 
I was very tired after some of my first few dives, but I think it was a combination of tension and moving heavy gear.

Not to mention the pure excitement. I had a real (adrenaline) rush after my first few dives and I often see students who find those first few dives incredibly intense on top of being long days with a lot of physical activity.

I'm not sure if that could explain the OP's symptoms but it's not overly uncommon in my experience for new students, especially ones that aren't overly fit, to be physically "wasted" after a long training day.

That said, "fuzzy heads" and "sea sick" makes me think vertigo, ergo ears. If it's both of them it could be tainted gas but a trip to an ENT specialist probably wouldn't hurt.

R..
 
Hi guys, 10 open water dives later in Sipadan and I can report very little of the feelings experienced after my initial first pool dive. Took sea sickness pills as there were lots of boat rides so maybe that helped with the after dive fuzzyness and motion sick feelings. We are on the last lap of PADI certification. Next dives will be from live-on boat in Raja Ampat so have already purchased a GoPro Hero 3 Black to capture our experiences.

Still not sure if diving is for me but it is certainly an experience everyone should try!
 
Be careful handling a camera on top of your dives given your relative inexperience,extra task loading can cause slipups given how new everything is :)

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk HD
 
Thanks for the good advice. I will be wearing a headband mount and will start and stop recording out of the water so nothing to do otherwise!
 
Be careful with the head mount! One of our local charter captains says they are the best way to let someone else find a nice camera . . .
 
gopro headmounts slip off really easy -- most people who want to keep their camera add a chinstrap to it and still tether it to your bc.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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