Was it seasickness?

[Z Gear]

It could be the thing you did differently. You said that in the past 10 dives you took the pseudo ephedrine with food, but this time you did not. Perhaps this could have irritated your empty stomach and caused some of this nausea. Not a doctor but it just sounds logical to me.

Frank G

 

[dmaziuk]

I've never thought about the exhaust either though, I remember one time getting back on after a dive and was hanging my head over the side before I'd really set foot on deck!

Apparently when I was a kid diesel exhaust would send me puking in a matter of minutes -- tested on a number of bus rides that I only vaguely remember. It's not a problem now and I "I never get seasick(tm)" also, but I am aware of it and try to stay away from exhaust fumes as much as I can.

 

[Nemrod]

Never, ever had motion sickness, not even close, pilot, boater, diver, love the water, no issue ever. Then one day, I was feeling a little below the weather and got sea sick on my little Boston Whaler. Never, say never. Every dog has his day and likewise, we all have our bad days. N

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Never, ever had motion sickness, not even close, pilot, boater, diver, love the water, no issue ever. Then one day, I was feeling a little below the weather and got sea sick on my little Boston Whaler. Never, say never. Every dog has his day and likewise, we all have our bad days. N

Yep! You just never know if or when it may hit you.

 

[The Laconic]

Never, ever had motion sickness, not even close, pilot, boater, diver, love the water, no issue ever. Then one day, I was feeling a little below the weather and got sea sick on my little Boston Whaler. Never, say never. Every dog has his day and likewise, we all have our bad days. N

I grew up on boats, too, sitting in the cabin reading while other people were waterskiing, and never got seasick. It hit me for the first time at 41, in some chop on Lake Michigan while gearing up. Thumbed both dives. I was the only person (besides the captain) who didn't feed the fishes, but I barely kept it under control.

 

[mi000ke]

Just returned from a Caribbean cruise we began the day after I made the original post. The dive on which I got sick was supposed to be a shakedown dive with my new bc and regs before the cruise. We had three boat dive outings (St. Thomas, Grenada, and Aruba). All were done in high wind/chop, and I experienced absolutely no sickness whatsoever. Just three days of great diving. So I am totally certain it was the diesel fumes that got me. Lesson learned: breath through your regulator when on the surface behind a boat with a running engine.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Most people don't get motion sickness while driving a car or piloting a boat/plane; the reason being because you're directly effecting the action of the vessel, you see what actions you have to take to steer a clear passage, you anticipate and react to the dynamic forces that result from such actions. Your mind/body kinesthetics are synchronized, your vestibular senses unconfounded, and you don't develop the nausea associated with motion sickness.

Here's how to achieve that state as a passenger on a diveboat (short of taking over the helm from the boat captain!):Look at the horizon, see how it moves relative to the boat's motion and memorize that pattern, and then get a feeling for the rhythm of the swells and synchronize it with horizon's motion. Now when you go down belowdecks, just play it all back in your "mind's eye" as you begin to feel & anticipate the boat's apparent motion --or even imagine the boat belowdecks is transparent and you can actually see the horizon & swells in sync with the boat's apparent motion-- it's all just visualization without medication and it works!

That's the visualization technique you gotta practice, and unfortunately it's difficult to do if you're concentrating on something else like setting up your gear, reading a book, watching a video, worrying about running out of ginger pills/dramamine/bonine etc. But once you get good at it, you can hold the malaise to a reasonable level even in stormy seas --a "four" for instance on a scale from 1 to 10, with "ten" being projectile vomiting, extreme nausea, hugging the rail and begging for someone to shoot you . . . (In my thirty hour passage from mainland Costa Rica to Cocos Island, I was cognitively exhausted performing the technique over an extended period, and just simply fell asleep naturally). . .Motion sickness is just a nuisance ailment than can be overcome without any medication . . .really!!!

The only scenario for a diveboat passneger where it becomes a serious health issue is excessive prolonged vomiting resulting in severe dehydration & electrolyte imbalance, which would require IV treatment.