Vertigo

[Northeastwrecks]

Hello,

Last weekend, I did the in water portion of my PADI rescue class. The water temp was approx. 50 deg. F, with almost no surf). I was wearing a full 7mm Farmer John. I skipped the hood and gloves.

While playing the victim (on back on surface while others attempted to remove a Halcyon BP with a long hose and necklace backup), I became extremely dizzy. It progressed to the point where I needed help exiting the water.

I'm just curious whether anyone else has experienced this? I don't normally have inner ear issues.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Northeastwrecks,

While I could be way off here, I'm going to coin what I believe is a new term in your honor, "alternothermic vertigo." This is to be the thermal equivalent of alternobaric vertigo, a well-known phenomena that occurs when a diver experiences differential middle ear pressures during ascent. This causes unequal vestibular stimulation with resultant vertigo.

Given that you were floating on your back in 50 deg. water wearing no hood, if one of your ears was being washed with cold water while the other wasn't (due to gentle wave action, positioning of the head, mechanical obstruction of one auditory canal) unequal middle ear temperatures could result. As with alternobaric vertigo, differential vestibular stimulation would occur with the expected dizziness.

This speculation is supported by the occasional effects of a common vestibular testing procedure known as cold calorics. This procedure involves introducing very cold water into one ear canal at a time. The movement of the eyes in response to this can assist in the diagnosis of complaints of vertigo. It is not uncommon for patients being assessed to complain of vertigo, nausea or even on occasion to vomit.

There you have the bold musings of a humble head-candler.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[Spectre]

Excellent info. I was in the middle of replying when my PC crashed, but I had the same sort of thing happen a few weeks ago.

2 deep dives, however _well_ within NDL limits. My ascent on the second dive was slow [~ 1 minute from my 15 ft safety stop to the surface] after spending close to 4 minutes at the safety stop. As soon as my head broke the 48 degree water I started looking around to get my bearings, and I had some major vertigo for about 5 seconds before it cleared up.

The temperature thing seems interesting, but it was only about 9 degrees difference between water and air. Perhaps water was trapped in my ear on one side but not the other?

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Thanks for the information. I had a sneaking suspicion that the water temp and my lack of a hood had something to do with the vertigo. Its good to hear that theory hold water (so to speak) as the fix is easy.

 

[srkdvr]

on a Bahamas trip. After the second day of diving everytime I would start up it would hit me, I told the wife "Not bad, a trip to the Bahamas to dive and then, a cool trip on the way up out of the water." Come to find out my sinus were messing up and as long as I took some sinus med's I was fine.

Rich :mean: