Vomiting with drysuit

[ScubaSixString]

Heat could definantly play a role here. I got stuck in the sand (the one spot on a 4th of july weekend that didn't have a car in it.....NOW i know why), waited an hour and a half for a tow truck in the sun and hot weather, suited up in my 7mm farmer john and rig, got about 3 feet away from the car and was hit with the worst and most sudden nausea i've ever had.

Talking with the dive shop when i turned in their full tank, they suspected heat exhaustion. I hit the water in the wetsuit before i gear up now (not so easy on a boat i suspect) and have been fine.

If you're hot, and unbalanced, and have pressure on your throat, you're probably asking to be sick. IMHO

 

[PFF]

I too was on the boat and while I normally have not been too suceptable to motion sickness was feeling it that day. Long period rollers coming in seemed to throw off my balance just a bit. Also I found the wetsuit was putting pressure on the hollow of my neck right below the adams apple. For me that tends to be the "sweet spot". It tends to make the bad feelings worse.

Kevin

Ryan, I think Kevin may be on to something on where the neck seal is positioned. I also have a new DUI CLx450 and have been trying to find the optimum postion for the neck seal. The seal is causing me to have a gag type reflex giving me the sensation that I wanted to throw up. The reflex action presents itself like a strong gastro problem. Presently, I am trying to find a comfortable position for the neck seal before going to trim it to another level.

Good luck on finding a solution for yourself
Paul

 

[mikerault]

I get nauseous if my shirt collar is too tight...like with ties...if I wear them all day. The neck seal on my semi-dry doesn't seem to bother me, but when I pulled the hood up over my chin, got a killer headache that lasted 2 days. Next time I positioned it just under the chin, still a good seal, but no headache, no jaw ache.

Mike

 

[DiverBuoy]

Love plugging this book, but Diver Down has a very scary chapter on a neck seal that was too tight, makes a diver pay a lot more attention to weight gain, tight fitting suits, improperly fitted suits, poorly maintained suits. The pressure feeling and your symptoms need to be telling you something you must pay attention to.

 

[Benthos]

Kevin may be on to something. When you apply pressure to the cricothyroid cartilage or Adams apple (Sellick's Maneuver) it can cause the musculature a the gastro esophageal junction to relax. This combed with the affects of increasing pressure (you swallow air while diving) and gravity (your now horizontal or worse depending on trim) encourages, well you know. A second possibility is that the baro receptors in the carotid sinus are being stimulated by your neck seal which can also cause N/V. A third possibility is that Internal stimulus in this region stimulates is sensed by crainial nerve IX (afferent) causing a gag reflex by way of crainial nerve 10 (efferent).

However I think it is very unlikely that either of these is the cause. It likely has a large psychological component (as do many causes for N/V) resulting from the extra sensory information (discomfort) caused by the neck seal. The systems that provide your body with sensory information about its relation to the world around it get overly stimulated during activities like diving. You brain has difficulty sorting them out and the result is nausea. Extra sensory inputs in certain areas, as a result of how your body is wired, are likely to trigger such responses.

 

[mtbrider]

Just a quick follow-up. I have stretched my hood out and my nausea is gone! I can conclusively say that this was my problem.

Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[bmaber]

Just my 2 cents worth -- I started getting dizzy at the same time I got a prescription mask and a tight wet suit. After much suspecting both it turned out to be my ears were not clearing right. If you get sick during or after the dive the likely culprit is ears not clearing at the same time (imbalance) nothing will make you dizzy like that can.

Imbalance can also occur if one ear gets hit with cold water while the other is blocked and stays warm, this becomes a bigger problem in the waters that you need a drysuit. You might have your Dr look for earwax build up too.

See the medical forum for more on this subject.