Vertigo

[Pondfrog]

It's probably not the same causal factors but this "spontaneous vertigo" began happening to my wife about two years ago. She never dove during this time, but it would always occur in the dark, especially when getting up in the middle of the night. The first time it happened I actually started laughing (yes I'm still married) because she was flopping like a fish saying "I can't get out of bed." I thought she was making some really bizarre joke. Anyways, after several occurences she saw an ear specialist who ran an exhaustive amount of tests and finally found that she had at some time incurred an injury of her vsestibular canals. It was really strange how it seemed to occur sporadically. After physical therapy (can you believe that) it never occured again.

 

[jeckyll]

Diver0001: The compass idea seems like a good one. My compass can swivel quite a bit, should be able to help act as a pivot / level.

 

[Coldblue]

A couple of ideas:

If disorientation gets to the point of not knowing where is up, how about grabing your octo with an extended arm and purging it? Bubbles glow in the dark and will tell you where up is.
You can repeat the procedure as necessary if you feel disoriented again.

Once you know where up is, the suggestion about the compass sounds very good. That will keep you facing pretty much in the same direction.

I'd suggest you mention it to a doctor, he may shed some light about possible causes.

 

[cummings66]

I bet she knows a couple good ENT's!

Sometimes things like that are not due to problems but rather something that just happens if you happen to hit the trigger just right.

Kind of like how I flew for years without getting spatial disorientation and then one day during some instrument training I got it big time and found out how unfun disorientation is. Never had it since either.

 

[TSandM]

This is so sporadic, I have a hard time believing it's inner ear pathology. It's clearly related to input from the inner ear in relation to other inputs, though -- it's when I'm deprived of any other sensory input that I can suddenly get completely unsure of my position or motion in space. Give me a reference I can use, and the problem goes away. I can also easily inhibit it, if I know it's coming, which is what I've learned to do with daylight green water ascents. It just really grabbed me in the dark and ruined the end of my dive, and I asked the original question to see if anybody else had come up with a good coping strategy. I've been given a number of very reasonable and easily implemented ideas, and thank you all.

No, I'm not blonde. Nobody in my family is blonde. Nobody gets through a surgical residency with any blonde genes

 

[gcbryan]

I know just about everything has been covered but if your buoyancy is good just before this happens and you were horizontal in the first place how about just shutting your eyes and relaxing for a moment? Open your eyes and focus on the depth gauge. If you inhale you will go up. If you exhale you will go down.

 

[BigBoB]

Never had it diving....but I used to get in the back of helicopter every time a pilot did a negative g turn. Worst feeling in world, especially at night!

 

[gcbryan]

edited

 

[BigTuna]

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?

I recently had a cold that left me with vertigo to get over. Going to bed (vertical to horizontal) would have me "spinning" for several seconds (fun actually!). Getting up, I'd fall down if I didn't take it in stages. Eventually it cleared up, but in the meantime I didn't dive.

Discussing it with a medical friend, I was told it likely had something to do with congestion that crept into the eustachian tubes or inner ears. If it happened on one side only, the brain could get mixed signals and send me into a loop. My doctor said vertigo isn't unusual associated with a cold.

This leads to suggesting you consult an MD or appropriate specialist. Who knows, maybe you live with some low-grade infection that makes you vulnerable. It's not impossible, considering where we take our eustacian tubes. Perhaps s/he would suggest some experiments with medications or decongestants. I hesitate to suggest it, but maybe a sudafed experiment on your own would tell you something. Anyway, isolate and eliminate the root problem; don't focus on coping mechanisms.

Accidents have a way of being the result of a chain of problems, so I wouldn't want to knowingly take a weakness under water. I'm also not so sure of the confidence I should have in a buddy that I know might not always be able to be there for me. Take that as a gentle nudge....

Good luck. I'd be very interested in results of an all-out medical investigation. If you undertake same, I'd appreciate hearing about it via PM, if you'd be so kind.

 

[Mystic Gringo]

I have Benign Vertigo Syndrome from having too mnay concussions (5 or so in total... I have mild memory issues even)... it occasionally pops up, and I have been known to throw myself out of bed, and have even ended up in hospital a few times because of this. I finally have a grip (pun sort of intented) on it, and can do most anything without too much annoyance. It was so bad for me that it would give me incredible motion sickness (I grew up on boats and have been in HUGE seas without ever getting sick). After CT scans, and a few other tests, the docs don't think I can really do that much for them. I was worried about it with diving, but it only happened one time, not even mid-water, or night.

As for a solution... I have a few drugs I can take, one is Meclizine which is supposed to make this sort of thing go away. I don't condone diving while on drugs (I keep mine on the boat just incase)... but it might be something to consult a doctor about. It is a perscription drug.... but is very effective (helps alot when I go to a party and drink a bit much too).

Hope it helps.