Distressed by Nausea

[n733lk]

I'm a newbie with just a handful of dives under my weight-belt.

This past weekend, I went diving with my son. We decided to make a fairly long swim out to a bouy where we then made our descent down to a wreck site at 27 ft.
Once we hit the wreck, we saw a line and decided to follow it. Vis was poor and we couldn't see much else than the line we were following.

After about 5-10 minutes, I began to feel uneasy and a bit sick to my stomach. I tried just staring at my hand for a moment, but that didn't help. Eventually, I thumbed the dive and we surfaced without incident. We then had a long swim back to the dock. I was feeling baaaaad; sick to my stomach and a headache to boot. I laid down for a few minutes and forced myself to eat a sandwich.

After about 20-30 minutes, I was feeling better and we did our second dive. Unfortunately, my son had trouble clearing one of his ears, so that dive was thumbed after 5-10 minutes of clearing effort. Therfore, I have no idea whether I would have felt sick again on the second dive. I guess it just wasn't our day!

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on how to deal with nausea, pre-dive, to eliminate this from happening again. Was it due to the poor vis?

I was feeling very defeated. I don't want my body to prevent me from enjoying my diving.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[freshorangina]

I sympathize with you because I get that from time to time. The last time it happened I was on a boat in pretty rough sea, but it wasn't until I was diving that it hit me. I had a new dive partner and was not used to her positioning herself above me. To have to look all around to find her was giving me vertigo, and after when we surfaced and got on the boat, it hit me like a ton of bricks. If I had eaten any decent breakfast I would have been feeding the fishes. After feeling like crap for a while and taking an anti-nauseant (non-drowsy) I started to feel better, albeit DROWSY! The second dive was fine, but because I was tired, I felt totally cold.

If you have problems with this in the future you can try the non-drowsy dramamine, or the ear patches, or wrist bracelets. Having a salty snack can help, but don't eat too much, because it could come right back up.

 

[Mossman]

To deal with the nausea, it would help to know what caused it. Two guesses come to mind immediately and I'm sure there are other potential explanations.

One potential cause of nausea and post-dive headache could be "bad air", i.e. some contaminant introduced into your tank such as CO. However, if your son's tank was filled at the same time by the same compressor, it's odd he didn't have any symptoms. Another could be alternobaric vertigo, caused by unequal ear clearing. If it's the latter, the nausea and vertigo usually worsen as you ascend, but subside after a half-hour or so on the surface (at least that's been my personal experience).

 

[Jax]

Hey, n733lk, was the water surgy? Lots of up and down?

I get seasick at the surface - could that be your problem?. Have you tried motion sickness meds?

I am a believer in Scopolamine, now. I've tried everything - Dramine original, meclizine, etc. - and the Scopolamine patch works the best.

If it isn't motion sickness, please consider not diving until you get to the bottom of it.

 

[n733lk]

To deal with the nausea, it would help to know what caused it. Two guesses come to mind immediately and I'm sure there are other potential explanations.

One potential cause of nausea and post-dive headache could be "bad air", i.e. some contaminant introduced into your tank such as CO. However, if your son's tank was filled at the same time by the same compressor, it's odd he didn't have any symptoms. Another could be alternobaric vertigo, caused by unequal ear clearing. If it's the latter, the nausea and vertigo usually worsen as you ascend, but subside after a half-hour or so on the surface (at least that's been my personal experience).

Mossman, I've actually experienced alternobaric vertigo in the past, during my first discovery dive; in that case, it came on like a light switch and included noticable vertigo. I did not experience conscious vertigo with this nausea and it came on slowly. My thought is that due to the low vis, my eyes and mind were not in sync, this on top of the effort during the long swim out caused the nausea. Perhaps, I will try dramamine or meclizine in the future as suggested by freshorangina.

Thanks.

 

[Dan W UTD]

Sounds like CO2 might be the culprit. Headache and nausea are symptoms of elevated CO2 levels. Perhaps a combination of the surface swim, the bad vis and perhaps some increased work of breathing the reg boosted your CO2 levels.

 

[beasleym]

I never get seasick except off of South side of Kauai. A friend of mine was in the merchant marine for years and never got sick. Now he can't go out without getting seasick. The point is that everyone can get sick under the right circumstances. Prevention is the key.

My regimen has worked out pretty good so far:
1) No drinking alcohol the day before
2) Watch what you eat before you dive. Assuming a morning dive, I eat a light dinner and breakfast and don't skip either. No soft drinks to cause bubbles and no greasy foods.
3) If it's mild weather I do nothing else. Otherwise I take a non drowsy Dramamine the night before and perhaps the morning of the dive. Worst case is that it's a antihistamine so my sinuses and ears are clear.

The only time I've had a problem is when I got a mouth full of sea water and some of it went down. The best cure - don't fight it and feed the fish. Some also find a spot at the rear of a boat to be the best place (not your problem but one way of avoiding the problem). Lastly more than one person I know swears by the seasickness bands and even wears them in the water to fight the nausea of surges.

 

[TSandM]

New diver, headache and nausea . . . I would also be suspicious of carbon dioxide retention. New divers often use a shallow, rapid breathing pattern that doesn't clear CO2 very efficiently. If you had a bit of feeling short of breath, that would clinch the diagnosis, for me anyway.

 

[lulubelle]

New diver, headache and nausea . . . I would also be suspicious of carbon dioxide retention. New divers often use a shallow, rapid breathing pattern that doesn't clear CO2 very efficiently. If you had a bit of feeling short of breath, that would clinch the diagnosis, for me anyway.

I'd put my money on this too for what it is worth. The OP didn't mention whether he/she was diving in freshwater or saltwater. Only that he/she was diving a wreck at 27 feet. Which makes me think that it was NOT in the ocean which would likely rule out seasickness. I had some trouble with post dive headaches when was new. I started focusing more on full exhalations, particularly on my stops on ascent, and the problem seems to have gone away.

 

[n733lk]

Well gang, sounds as though I need to learn how to breath all over again. Nice, slow, deep breaths with equally deep exhalations.

Does Nitrox help with CO2 issues?

Thanks everyone. Looks like I've got something new to practice!