Nausea while diving

[Samurai]

My girlfriend tried to finish her OW is weekend, but could not finish due to a couple of factors. The main one is that she felt sick while diving. While in a pool she felt fine, but became sick to her stomach after getting out of the water. The next day, at a lake, she became sick while descending and was ill for about 30-45 min on land. The water the second day was 68 degrees and the pool was around 70ish. I don’t think she was properly weighted, the first day she ended up having all her weights on one side which caused her to flip to one side, I heard about this later after picking her up.

As far as I can tell, after reading the boards, the problem maybe sea sickness, caused by the cold water in her ears causing vertigo. It also maybe a problem with her breathing too fast causing air to get into her stomach. She had a little congestion this weekend in her sinuses, but was able to clear her ears fine, but I think this could also be a factor.

Does anyone else have any ideas? She is a little discouraged and has even talked about stopping after coming this far. I know she some issues with maneuvering precisely in the water, which is not helping either. I think she may need some more time in the pool to get more comfortable moving and breathing in the water. I wonder if there could be a medical issue. A call to DAN over the weekend only got us voice mail on the phone.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I'm no doctor but it might be stress related as well. Being nervous before the dive and having problems during it can be discouraging and some more pool time might give her more confidence. Diving can be a bit scary for anyone when they first start.

 

[Samurai]

I was thinking about that. I spoke to the instructor afterwards and he said she was a little nervous. This and she told me she was breathing a little fast. I told her that maybe the instructor needs to let you get in the water and sit for a few minutes to calm down. I don't think there is a medical issue, but I don't want to take any chances either.

 

[trigfunctions]

It is definitely possible to get seasickness underwater while diving, especially if there is a surge or current, or if you are not properly weighted and your body is shifting around a lot. Even a slight current or surge can do it, especially if you are hanging on a line in open water with nothing stable to look at.
Most of the standard seasickness preventatives work for me - dramamine, bonine, ginger, etc.

 

[DandyDon]

Some people just need more practice with the open and weightless feeling in open water diving, hope she doesn't lose hope. This part concerns me, tho....

I don’t think she was properly weighted, the first day she ended up having all her weights on one side which caused her to flip to one side, I heard about this later after picking her up.

That would cause anyone to become dizzy, then maybe nauseous.

 

[Samurai]

It concerned me as well. I told her we need a new instructor, but she wanted to keep him and see how it went the next day. After talking with her some on the way back, it seems he didn't even check to she how much weight she needed. I told her that she needs to give a try and we will gradually get her use to it, if she wants to continue. She just needs to complete her open water dives, but I think she needs to do more confined water dives before moving on. That is just my opinion. She has mixed feelings about completing it now and she is a little reluctant to spend more money for pool dives if she can never complete the open water portion. We just need to find a good instructor around here that can get her use the water and build her confidence up again. If I was an instructor I would do it myself.

 

[DandyDon]

The Inst I know dont charge extra for extra training and practice needed to complete OW...?

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

If I don't eat before diving, I get nauseous.

 

[Samurai]

That is another thing... She didn't want to eat before hand because of the sick feeling she had the day before. I told her that maybe she really needed to eat some bread or something.

I am not sure if a local place around here will let her practice if she did her classwork somewhere else. I will have to see what I can find in our area.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I usually stick with bland foods. Some things can come back to haunt you at depth. A couple of guys I dive with, won't eat anything with green peppers for breakfast. Green peppers don't bother me. I knew a diver who wouldn't eat watermelon for the same reason. He said it "got revenge" on him at depth.

Pancakes, French toast, eggs, biscuits, cereal, yogurt, whatever.. As long as it doesn't have a lot of grease, a high acid content, or a ton of sugar, or it's not something like jalapenos, it's probably a safe bet.