Vertigo

[TSandM]

That's about how I felt last night . . .

 

[Cacia]

I am really sympathetic on this one. I had my first episode at around 800 dives, having never had it before. It was at night, my BF dropped his keys at about 120 ft leaving the boat. The rest of our group left us to continue on to the wreck at 100 ft. Since where he planned to search exceeded my MOD (NItrox) I decided to hang at around 90 and watch him look for the keys. It was pitch black. That has never been a problem before. Once everyone was gone and I could no longer see their dive lights, and he was way below me, I was hit by the most profound vertigo I could not even have imagined. No point of reference, I felt like my brain was not anchored in my skull. It came out of no where, lasted way too long, and I still live in a little fear that it could happen again.
You are already doing what helps me if I even think about that night. Focusing on your gauge keeps the feeling at bay for me, I often wonder if what hit me that night was what pilots get, flying on instruments. Really, really creepy. If you get somewthing that works, post a new thread in CAPS, please!

 

[TSandM]

Oh, catherine, thanks for the moral support. It's really an awful feeling, and I just couldn't pull myself together enough to try to do the things I could to stop it. Combined with having trouble seeing my gauge in the dark, it was just a double whammy.

 

[Wayward Son]

You might try this, if you don't mind keeping your nose wet.

Let a small amount of water in your mask. Where ever that water goes, that way is down.

Or, get a small dive light that is positive. Keep it on a lanyard on your wrist. It will show you which way is up bc it floats.

 

[rockjock3]

THAT's an interesting idea -- a short piece of line with a fishing weight on it in my pocket. Hmm. Stay at right angles to the line. I think I'll try it!

Unless your plum bob gets vertigo as well and then you might both be upside down.

Actually, I do the old hug yourself method. If I am swimming along and get vertigo (usually only on a night dive from time to time). I stop, hug myself, and it has always passed. I feel better and more liked after hugging myself as well.eyebrow

 

[Diver0001]

I seem to have a significant problem with severe spatial disorientation when I have no visual reference. In the pool, when we did the mask removal and swim skill, I swam somersaults without knowing it.

Hmmm.... blonde roots? Was one of your parents blonde? Maybe you carry a spinning gene.... LOL

I know the feeling you mean. If I'm tired I sometimes get the feeling of rotating slowly to the left when the vis is really bad. Keeping an eye on my compass seems to help. Probably focusing on any fixed object, like something floating in the water, would help.

It won't help with your mask off but it's something to try.

R..

 

[dherbman]

Would it help to watch bubbles?

 

[ghostdiver1957]

I seem to have a significant problem with severe spatial disorientation when I have no visual reference. In the pool, when we did the mask removal and swim skill, I swam somersaults without knowing it. When I started doing OW dives in the crummy viz we have in the summertime, I would get into midwater and start feeling as though I was tumbling -- the frantic efforts I made to correct what I thought was happening (that wasn't) created the very situation I thought I was attempting to fix. I slowly got to where I can hang in midwater and just monitor my depth gauge, and if I start to feel like I'm tumbling, just ignore it (who cares if you're upside down, if your depth is correct, right? Obviously, Uncle Pug doesn't . . . ) But last night, I was trying to do an ascent in the dark and it hit me again and just wiped out my ability to control my ascent.

I can't be alone in this, because even my PADI manual talked about vertigo in blue water. Does anybody have any clever tips -- visualizations, ways of getting oriented in space -- that will work in the DARK?

First and foremost see an ENT to try to discover the underlying cause... because believe me there is one.

If you're too cheap or not serious enough about surviving your next dive, skip the ENT and try the following... find something to focus on... the best thing is your own dive watch or computer. The next best thing is your dive buddy or any other diver you can see. Glance only at your gauges to monitor depth and time and then directly back to your point of focus. Get yourself back to the surface.

Spacial disorientation and vertigo while similar are not and do not always present the same. You may feel wobbly or you may have an uncontrollable sensation of spinning out of control. The first is somewhat manageable, the second is much harder to manage. I have suffered from both. My episodes are brought on by excessive repetitive diving which causes one of my eustation tubes to work at a slower pace then the other. One is narrower and weaker. I have discovered over the years that it will hit me somewhere between the 8th and 10th dive during a week of diving. By suggestion of a DAN Doctor, I now dive 6 dives, sit out 3 dives then resume. I miss some dives, but the program has stopped the episodes completely since my eustation tube gets the needed time to rest and recover.

Seek out a DAN ENT in your area, and pay him/her a visit... you'll be glad you did.

Ken

 

[dbg40]

Rick: That's just mean!

Rick,,that's just FUNNY!

 

[fire_diver]

This one's easy. Just tape THIS on the inside of your mask.

Damn Rick! Thats got me all messed up now. Poor TS&M is probably doing cartwheel on the floor now.