nausea/headaches

[kbngreen]

Several dives done in the 1970's without any nausea/surfacing problems. Re-certified and started diving again (now age 51) with family. OW dives were in Fla. springs, both dives cold water to about 20ft. and during both had to surface with nausea/headache. Just got back from 5 days of diving in Cayman. One dive to 50 ft. surfacing with nausea/headache, others were OK (one to 70 ft. was fine).
Just dove springs again this week down to 50 ft. for 10 min. then ascent slowly and with 5 min. stop at 20 ft. then surfaced with extreme dizziness, extreme nausea, and threw up, then could not breathe in at all...gasped for air several times, and finally succeeded in getting a breath in, then another until I could start getting in some air again. Gagging/cough ...then bubbles of air started coming up, and big burps of air came out.
Scary!! Finally, able to swim out and ungear, but was nauseous
rest of day with lightheaded feeling, slight headache. Felt better in pm. and took blood pressure: 113/66 with 68 pulse rate.
Have made Dr. appt. for checkup (doc is a diver too). No ear
problems or sinus, don't feel that I'm shallow breathing. No anxiety going on, had warmth, other fam's tanks/regs were fine...rental air ok. What is this?? Everyone else in our group felt fine. Scared my hubby...I was white as a ghost, and pale rest of the day. What would you suggest I try to see where problem is coming from??

[rmediver2002]

Just dove springs again this week down to 50 ft. for 10 min. then ascent slowly and with 5 min. stop at 20 ft. then surfaced with extreme dizziness, extreme nausea, and threw up, then could not breathe in at all...gasped for air several times, and finally succeeded in getting a breath in, then another until I could start getting in some air again. Gagging/cough ...then bubbles of air started coming up, and big burps of air came out.

It sounds like you may have swallowed some amount of air during the dive considering the nausea and burps on ascent...

But that should not have contributed to your dizziness... It would be very difficult to try and assign a cause for the dizziness but some things to consider looking back on your dive:

Did any vertigo or dizziness occur on decent? This could be indicative of alternobaric vertigo perhaps from one ear clearing slower than the other... Another cause can be temperature differences between your ears causing caloric vertigo, this can occur when wearing a hood if the ears are not exposed to the shock of the cold water at the same time...

Have you ever experienced any type of laryngospasm that you know of? Sometimes this can occur with exposure to cold water and could explain your inability to take a breath on surfacing...

Scary!! Finally, able to swim out and ungear, but was nauseous rest of day with lightheaded feeling, slight headache. Felt better in pm. and took blood pressure: 113/66 with 68 pulse rate.

That is scary... The nausea and the headache could be contributed to CO2 retention, normally this will resolve within an hour of surfacing as you begin to breath at your normal rate... The fact that it lasted later in the day may point back towards some type of barotrauma even if no sensation of pain was present...

It sound like you lucky to have a MD available who is also a diver to discuss this with, I for one would be interested in hearing his opinion if you do not mind posting it...

I hope you get this resolved!!

Stay safe,

Jeff Lane

[kbngreen]

During descent, I didn't notice any sensation of vertigo.
I do recall having to clear one ear a bit more than the other,
but not so much as to make it a problem. One ear does seem
to clear slower than the other on most dives. But never a
distraction, really. I was not wearing a hood on this dive (when
I threw up at surface); but I was wearing a hood on cold water
OW dives where I was still nauseated at surface. I have never
before experienced any kind of laryngospasm, but from the
sound of your word.....it sounds just like what I experienced!!
I have a small frame, very low body fat, and run "low" on my
blood pressure readings. Because I am more than average
sensitive to cold, I wore a dive "skin" under my .3ml wetsuit
along with booties and gloves. I felt warm enough under water.
My head did not feel cold during the dive. I had no sensations
of feeling cold at depth nor of feeling dizzy or lightheaded at
depth. The dizziness really became more apparent to me as
I got closer to the surface and most extreme at the surface.

I discussed this with my doctor who dives. He really did not
have a firm answer. He suggested that the cold water could have affected my Vagus Nerve (Vaso-Vagal) and slowed
metabolic processes, plus with my general low blood pressure, could be why I'm getting dizzy. But I also experienced lightheadedness/some nausea on one dive in very warm Cayman water. So he wasn't sure. Do you have any more info on this Vagus Nerve possibility?

I thought about the CO2 retention also. That sounds more like
what happened on the earlier dives because the nausea/headache did reduce and clear within about an hour or
so after coming out of the water, same thing in Cayman....discomfort reduced after about an hour or so. But this last springs dive where I threw up, layrngospasm, etc. did not resolve within an hour.....my husband drove and I had to keep my head down on the seat or felt like throwing up again.. so it was about 2-3 hrs. later before I really felt better. So, I'm leaning toward the CO2 diagnosis. If this is it, how do I fix?? I feel like I am inhaling/exhaling properly, not breath holding, not anxious, etc.
I try to keep a regular pattern going without putting too much
concentration on that rather than enjoying the dive.
There was no sensation of pain or cold trauma during the dive
that I was aware of. So, I have experienced the same problem in both warm and cold waters, shallow and deeper dives.

There is one other factor. I am diving with an older mask which
fits me well and has prescription lenses in it. The prescription is
not current, but certainly enables me to see better than without any lenses in at all. However, I now have bifocal prescription with distance correction. The mask I am using would not be too off from the distance prescription, but would have no "bifocal".
Could this possibly cause dizziness. Objects under water are
closer anyway, so having a bifocal didn't seem important. After all I'm not reading underwater....the fish are big enough!! I do
intend on updating this mask, but I asked my optometrist about the prescription, and he did not think it would be a big difference.

My husband suggests I try breathing on a tank in our pool for
30 min. and see how I feel. If my problem was co2 retention,
would that be sufficient time and air for the problem to show??
Or, would it have to be a deeper depth? I think we're just grabbing at straws here, but bottom line is I'm reluctant now to go diving again. How would the Vagus Nerve affect CO2 retention?

Well, anyway, I have relaxed a bit about the spasm that caused the lack of breathing. I think that might have been the "end" result. My intuition says that "something" is causing the lightheaded/headache feeling, which in turn causes the nausea feeling, which if bad enough, causes throwing up and the possibility of a throat spasm. If cold water only increases this whole scenario, then all can be solved if I can find what starts the head process. OR, do you say CO2 retention starts the nausea??
Oh, gosh, just rethinking all of this....

An upside : on this springs dive, we were asked to
look out for some imported "Armored Catfish" that were released accidentally into the springs and taking over habitat....and to count them. I got to get up close and personal to 42 of them
all resting on the bottom near the springs boil where we dove.
They do look like they are wearing Asian armor, and I could see
why they were taking over....they were a battleship grey army
on the bottom....if I were a blue gill, I'd be scared!! Thanks for your time and attention to my posting. I'm new to this board and
certainly wasn't expecting to participate starting off with a medical problem, but I'm grateful to you and the other experienced divers who can impart your knowledge to the rest of us and for this forum. At least I feel better knowing I can research this a bit more and where to go for help. THANKS!!

[rmediver2002]

well I agree with you it is sounding more like CO2 retention but I am curious about your statement that you run "low" on blood pressure readings...

That coupled with the bodies response to cold water could be making the symptoms more pronounced...

Have you ever had trouble with lightheadedness or dizziness on the surface (not diving related)? Like when you stand to quickly?

A good resource to try is:

http://www.scuba-doc.com/medcntr.html

both for information on Vagus nerve effect while diving and perhaps to explain your situation... (you can post questions to the site)

You also mentioned your breathing pattern while diving, do you think it is possible you are breathing to slowly or perhaps your respirations are to shallow (sometimes this occurs without thinking about it especially when working on buoyancy control...)

I hope you are able to get some more concrete answers and figure this thing out...

Stay safe,

Jeff Lane

[kbngreen]

my blood pressue readings tend to be low 100's. Day of the
incident pressure was 113/66. Have always had lower pressure,
low cholesterol readings (very athletic during the years) so drs.
always say my readings look "great"! My thyroid was recently tested with normal ranges. No, I really don't notice getting
dizzy when I bend down and back up. The only other times
I have had trouble with dizzyness/nausea was: motion sickness
on boats, wild toad rides at Disney, or cars while trying to read.
From time to time, I have had some queasiness due to vision
problems or eye strain but all of the above are only sporadic.
As an aside......I recently tried taking Ginger before boat diving
and felt very good, while the others got queazy!!! I could
certainly try taking some Ginger tabs before diving without too
much worry. I will go to the website you suggested and do
some further research. Thank you for your reply.