Nausea in the pool

[julieb]

I have always experienced motion sickness and wear sea bands and take Meclizine HCI with usual success for most car and airplane rides. I have mixed success on boats.

I did my ow pool work last weekend and was really surprised at the level of nausea that I had in the deep pool. I didn't have any problems in the shallow pool.

I did have a lot of problems with my bouyancy in the deep pool so I am sure that contributed to the problem. I took Meclizine HCI without much effectiveness on Sunday.

My ow dives are this weekend and will be shore dives in a fairly calm area. Since I didn't think I would get motion sick in the pool I didn't get a prescription for the scop patch prior to my classes. I understand that the Scop Patch is the best method, but I am leary to try something new with such a short time frame. Since I was nauseous in the pool I am very worried about the added water movement in the ocean.

Can I wear my sea bands while diving? I will be trying a bland high carb diet on the night before and morning of the dive as I have heard that that may help. I also plan to take Meclezine. When should I begin taking it and in what dose. I have heard that I should start the night before and then the morning of. I normally take 1 pill. Is that what I should take? I am also in a search for anything with ginger in it that I can eat or take.

If you have any suggestions I would be greatful. I would really like to be able to dive, but getting sick after every dive is already getting old. My instructors are great and said I can tag along with other classes if I can't do all of my dives this weekend... but I would like to stop the nausea if I can.

-julie

 

[The Chairman]

Hey JulieB...

First off... WELCOME to the finest board, SCUBA or otherwise on the net. I hope you get to meet the same great poeple I have, and have as fun a time as the rest of us.

My first pool dive was similer to yours... I thought I was going to lose it!!! Diagnosis per instructor... I had swallowed a ton of that chlorinated water doing all of my pool excersizes. He was right, as I have not had that condition since.

So relax, unless you have ultra high visibility and a goodly depth (vertigo) you will probably NOT feel so bad on your open water dives.

:tease:

 

[Fishkiller]

Welcome to from ARIZONA the all beach no ocean state.



I can't comment on the pool nausea. though I have heard about people swallowing to much water like NetDoc, and feeling sick.

I've only dove in the ocean a few times and from shore, the only time I noticed the motion was on the surface..I would recommend taking ginger along with the pills. you can get ginger at any asian market or go to a Japanese restaurant and ask.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

A big welcome from North Texas.....


I have noticed and my wife has told me she has a hard time sometimes with the dry air triggering her gag reflex. I don't know if this could be related to your prob or not. Gulping chlorinated water can upset some peoples tummies too.

Best wishes.

Tom

 

[Kane(adian)]

Chlorinated water...yechh! Nasty stuff! No real ideas on what you can do to prevent this, other than:

Know how to breathe from a regulator when you are barfing (I tried to think of a better word) just incase you become ill.

Boat and plane sickness...only suggestion, try different things. I find that if I eat when I feel sick, things get better.

Hope this helps.

 

[ladycute1]

Yes you can wear sea bands while diving. I posted about my experience in the sea band thread... But I use them regularly whenever I'm doing boat dives.

 

[julieb]

Thanks for everyones advise on this post and my post about sea bands.

I ate a high carb diet the day before and day of my dives, started taking Meclizine HCI 24 hours before my first dive, took ginger tablets the day of my dives and wore my sea bands.

As luck would have it, Monterey Bay was at a all time high for vis on Sat, 25-30 ft and virtually no surf.

I am happy to report I was able to complete my OW dives without much problem. The only time I had problems was when the instructor was trying to be nice and was taking down students one at a time to do skills and leaving the rest of us on the surface. Unfortunately I was great under water, but got nauseous when I was doing any bouncing at the surface. I just learned to be the middle student so that I could break up the amount of time on the surface.

 

[scubadoc]

Check out a very good thread written by DocVikingo at http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?threadid=2924 .
Seasickness can be the initiating factor in a cascade of problems that can often lead to disaster. This is the reason why we have placed an entire section about motion sickness in our web site. http://www.scuba-doc.com/seask.html

As to the appropriate medication (or treatment method) for you, this will only come with trial and error - as everyone has his/her own favorite and useful therapy. That there is no one cure-all is attested to by the fact that there are so many different modes of treatment, some tested and proven effective, others untested but sworn by. Whatever you choose - it must of necessity be a medication that will not endanger you at depth - such as has been shown to occur with 'Dramamine' in the abstract reproduced below.

Pharmacotherapy 2000 Sep;20(9):1051-4

The psychometric and cardiac effects of dimenhydrinate in the hyperbaric environment.

Taylor DM, O'Toole KS, Auble TE, Ryan CM, Sherman DR.

Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine the psychometric and cardiac effects of dimenhydrinate at 1 and 3 atmospheres (atm) of pressure (0 and 66 feet of sea water, respectively), and to make recommendations about the drug's safety in the diving environment. DESIGN: Double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study SETTING: Monoplace hyperbaric chamber of a university hospital. SUBJECTS: Thirty active divers (mean age 38 yrs). INTERVENTIONS: A bank of seven tests was used to assess cognitive function during four different dive combinations: placebo-1 atm, placebo-3 atm, dimenhydrinate-1 atm, and dimenhydrinate-3 atm. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Heart rate and cardiac rhythm were recorded during all dives. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the effects of dimenhydrinate, depth, and drug-depth interaction. Dimenhydrinate resulted in a significant decrease in scores of mental flexibility (trail-making, part B, p<0.05) but had no effect on scores in the six other psychometric tests (p>0.05). It had no effect on mean heart rate (p>0.05), although frequent unifocal ventricular ectopic beats occurred in two subjects after ingestion of the drug. Depth resulted in a significant decrease in verbal memory test scores (p=0.001) and mean heart rate (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Dimenhydrinate adversely affects mental flexibility. This effect, when added to the adverse effect of depth on memory, may contribute to the dangers of diving.

Scopolamine, in a dermal patch form is probably the most effective and safest anti-motion sickness remedy. Even it needs fine-tuning with size of patch and time of placement.

scubadoc
Diving Medicine Online
http://www.scuba-doc.com/
Answers are for information only, do not imply diagnosis or treatment and should always be used in conjunction with the advice of you personal physician.

 

[julieb]

Scuba Doc, your site was very helpful to me in the week between my pool and ow dives.

I went browsing through all of the archives and sites to find anything that might help me, since my scuba doctor and I didn't think I would have a problem in the pool or my ow dive and I had a problem in the pool, I was starting to panic about the ow dives. We were counting on my tried and true methods to give me any help that I needed for my ow class.

Unfortunately with only a week between pool and ow, I didn't feel comfortable trying any new drugs that I had not taken in the past, so the suggestions on your site gave me avenues to try that to me were more comfortable.

Since I know that suggestion may play a role in my seasickness it felt good to know that someone/anyone had some relief by changing what I ate for breakfast and putting my wrist bands on. My ow dives went much more smoothly than my pool sessions, and I attribute that to your site.

My scuba doctor and I have talked about options for me to try before I begin my adv. ow cert process.

For anyone who has health issues... I highly recommend seeing a general practictioner who is knowledgeable in diving. They can give very specific advise, but the board is great for making you feel that you aren't alone and keeping you from calling the doc every day.