Seasickness

[Gabriel Torres]

Thanks, all.

No, I was not wearing a hood. But one thing I notice was that the wet suit pressing my throat was worsing the sickness, because I was pulling the wet suit from my throat without even realizing I was doing it while I was sick.

No one else in my group got sick, just me. Just clarifying, I didn't get sick at the pool.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Gabriel, I invariably get sick on boats that are not moving. It is part of my routine to puke after most boat dives. Once I am in the water, regardess of conditions- waves, current, surge, I am fine. I have never experienced seasickness when in the water, so never on a shore dive. I think you either were very nervous or anxious on your first four dives, or else you have some medical condition beyond simple motion sickness that many of us experience. Don't give up on diving just yet. As noted by other posters, consider the conditions ( waves, current) as well as you own mental state. It may be worth a visit to an appropriate specialist. Diving is way too important ( and cool) to give up on without further investigation and effort to find a solution.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Gabriel Torres]

You guys helped me no to give up just yet... I will give it another try using the trick of taking the medicine before sleeping and then in the morning.

Question: how many tablets of Kwells should I take, one or two?

 

[RJP]

A.) You will probably get used to it. Don't underestimate the added impact of nerves.

B.) Eat bananas before you dive. They don't do anything to help, but they ARE the only food that tastes/feels the same coming up as they did going down.

 

[daniel1948]

I use transdermal scoplamine patches. But I only get a bit seasick on boats. It works pretty well for that, but might not be the answer for you. It does require a prescription and wasn't covered by my insurance, but it wasn't crazy expensive.

The manufacture of Scopace was suspended around 2012. I have not heard that it is back in production, but a compounding pharmacy can make the equivalent for you with a prescription. It's more expensive than the orginal Scopace, but cheaper than the patch.

Transderm Scop (the patch) Scopace, and Kwells are all the same medication. The dosage of one Kwells tablet is lower than one Scopace tablet. I have used the patch and I found that the first day the side effects are intolerable, and by the third day the effectiveness is inadequate. Only on day 2 is it functional and acceptable. (Side effects for me are dry/sore throat and dizziness. Other side effects are possible.) So I switched from the patch to the Scopace tablet.

When they quit making Scopace I began buying Kwells over the internet from Australia. They can legally sell you (if I remember correctly) six boxes of 12 tablets each by mail without a prescription. I may be off on the numbers. The tablet can be split, for a lower dose, or doubled, for a larger dose. I find that for me (140-pound man) one Kwells is the ideal dose. If conditions are very rough, nothing will help, but if conditions are moderate, with one Kwells I won't be sick enough to spoil the fun. (I get very seasick, very easily. I get sick on porch swings and rocking chairs.)

I used to use meclazine, which helped, but is less effective for me than Kwells. Meclazine lasts 12 hours. Kwells lasts 6 or 8 hours. I like the shorter duration for day outings because I don't need it once I'm off the boat. On a live-aboard, obviously a longer duration is an advantage, but I need the most powerful stuff I can get. Ginger and wrist bands do absolutely nothing for me. (Though I do like the taste of ginger beer.)

If there is a big swell, I will get extremely sick on the surface. For this reason, I ask permission from the DM to go in early and immediately descend to 15 feet, where I'll wait for my buddy or the group.

 

[Gabriel Torres]

Thanks, Daniel, for your testimonial. I live in Australia, so for me getting Kwells is just a matter of walking into any drugstore or supermarket... I used to live in the US and I think it is really silly for them to make you to go to a doctor to get this kind of medicine... What is the next step? Asking prescription for Aspirin?

 

[NAM001]

go to your pharmacy and ask for motion sickness pills. Here it is behind the counter but non-perscription most I use contain meclizine.
names such as Dramamine, bodine, motion ease

 

[lowviz]

Great post FinnMom. So let's define the "medicated extreme":

Scopolamine patch, Promethazine, and Pseudoephedrine (to keep you from sleeping through your dive)

I have resorted to this in the past. Scoped and Prom'ed out of my mind. Seas were horrid, desire to dive was overwhelming...

 

[Yarbrough]

This applies to on the boat more than in the water, but there is some good information on the medications mentioned above.

Motion Sickness

It seems to me that based on the circumstances, the answer for your specific case is pretty clear. Do your predive safety check prior to getting in the water, make sure everything is ready to go and then, spend as little time on the surface as possible. If the surge on the surface around a dive flag is what gets you, don't spend your time there. Do not short cut any dive safety procedures, but you can descend a few feet and get off of the surface, and generally that feeling goes away. The issue in class is that directions are given floating on the surface, many times, students will float around a buoy waiting on their turn to descend. This is unneeded on non training dives. Make sure your buddy is on the same page as you and go dive.

A word of warning though, if you get sea sick this easily, boats are probably going to cause you to get sick also, so be prepared for that when you start diving there. By no means give up diving, I am a PADI Course Director with many years of diving experience, and I have not ever set foot on a boat without taking my Dramamine, or Triptone, and even gotten seasick some then.

 

[daniel1948]

Thanks, Daniel, for your testimonial. I live in Australia, so for me getting Kwells is just a matter of walking into any drugstore or supermarket... I used to live in the US and I think it is really silly for them to make you to go to a doctor to get this kind of medicine... What is the next step? Asking prescription for Aspirin?

There is no requirement for a prescription for Kwells in the U.S. It is legal to buy limited quantities by mail order. Six boxes of a dozen tablets each, IIRC. The problem is that the drug companies choose not to market Kwells here. Scopace required a prescription because it was a higher dose than Kwells. There are several examples of medications that are OTC in smaller dose and prescription in higher dose. So the problem is not government.

Scopace apparently was taken off the market because they were not selling enough to suit them. Not because of any problem with the drug itself.

go to your pharmacy and ask for motion sickness pills. Here it is behind the counter but non-perscription most I use contain meclizine.
names such as Dramamine, bodine, motion ease

The problem is that for some people, myself included, meclizine is not strong enough. You should always use the smallest effective dose and the least powerful medicine that works for you, so if meclizine works, use it. I need stronger stuff, and scopolamine (Kwells) is the strongest stuff I've found.

I actually like Kwells more than Scopace because the lower dosage is just right for me.