Successful Seasickness Prevention Medication Combination

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Quatro

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Location
Santa Cruz Mountains, CA
# of dives
25 - 49
After years of trying various medications, I found the following combination to be completely successful at preventing seasickness without side-effects of drowsiness:
Transderm scopolamine (1.5mg) patch, applied the evening before embarkation;
plus Promethazine 25mg (aka Phenergan), take 1 tablet the evening before and then 1 tablet 1 hour before embarkation;
plus Pseudoephadrine HCl 60mg (aka Sudafed, NOT Phenylephrine), take 1 dosage 1 hour before embarkation to counteract narcotic effect of Promethazine.
Background:
I just got back from a 4-day fishing trip in Alaska. First day we had 3-5ft confused ("jackass") seas for 6 hours. I would typically either be chumming within an hour or sitting like Buddha in a drug-induced stupor. All 4 days I had no hint of sickness and no problem with drowsiness. By day 4, I went so far as eating lunch with a beer. Over the past 10+ years, I've been trying various other medications with very limited success, including scopolamine patch alone, scopace pills, dramamine, meclazine, electronic wrist band (ReliefBand).
 
Last edited:
Good to find something that works. Do you use ginger at all? I'm a big fan of promethazine for nausea which I get from migraines. I don't get seasick,thank goodness, but I'm cursed with about 15 migraines a month nowadays.
 
After years of trying various medications, I found the following combination to be completely successful at preventing seasickness without side-effects of drowsiness:
Transderm scopolamine (1.5mg) patch, applied the evening before embarkation;
plus Promethazine 25mg (aka Phenergan), take 1 tablet the evening before and then 1 tablet 1 hour before embarkation;
plus Pseudoephadrine HCl 60mg (aka Sudafed, NOT Phenylephrine), take 1 dosage 1 hour before embarkation to counteract narcotic effect of Promethazine.
Background:
I just got back from a 4-day fishing trip in Alaska. First day we had 3-5ft confused ("jackass") seas for 6 hours. I would typically either be chumming within an hour or sitting like Buddha in a drug-induced stupor. All 4 days I had no hint of sickness and no problem with drowsiness. By day 4, I went so far as eating lunch with a beer. Over the past 10+ years, I've been trying various other medications with very limited success, including scopolamine patch alone, scopace pills, dramamine, meclazine, electronic wrist band (ReliefBand).

Holy Mucousal membrane Batman! Does the nosebleed come for no extra charge ?


I've become a big fan of Zofran. If its good enough for the US Seals. . .
 
ginger either the pills or just a plain root from a grocery store has always been working well for me. I also try to eat only carbs the morning when we dive.
 
Good to find something that works. Do you use ginger at all? I'm a big fan of promethazine for nausea which I get from migraines. I don't get seasick,thank goodness, but I'm cursed with about 15 migraines a month nowadays.

At the risk of thread hijacking...tracydr, that's a boat load of migraines. Nothing helping?
 
There's nothing worse than being seasick. When I get seasick, it just completely immobilizes me. I can't drink, eat, look around, move my gear to 2nd tank during the SI, lean over to put on fins, nothing. I just tense up and stare at whatever makes me feel the least worse. Looking at the horizon or fixed objects doesn't help. Drinking ginger ale just results in me vomiting it up.

I tried the patch by itself and it doesn't work for me (put on the night before). I took 2 25mg bonine (mecklazine) pills an hour before getting on the boat with the patch and I was feeling awesome. I want to try it without the patch to see if it's just the pills that are working for me, but I'm so scared of being seasick that I haven't had the courage to do it. When I'm not completely immobilized by seasickness, any queasy feeling I do have is fixed by looking at the horizon or just getting a breeze on me. On my last boat trip I was up front and someone closed the windows. I ended up standing mid way back where the wind was blowing on me and I was good to go.

Regardless, my last 3 boat dives have been wonderful! The boat can rock all it wants and I'm chowing down snacks and drinking liquids.
 
I usually took down gravol pills but one day forgot to take them and the dive shop sold me a box of Bonine. Worked great and no drowsiness! Only issue is for some odd reason they don't sell Bonine in Canada! Going to have to give one of the internet pharmacies a go, found a place that sells them 60pils for $12! I paid $10 for 12 at the dive shop.

The first day out on the boat I was retching over the side and the seas weren't that bad. My wife was never hot on the live-aboard idea and given me and my son's seasickness maybe sketch that idea for good.
 
I usually took down gravol pills but one day forgot to take them and the dive shop sold me a box of Bonine. Worked great and no drowsiness! Only issue is for some odd reason they don't sell Bonine in Canada! Going to have to give one of the internet pharmacies a go, found a place that sells them 60pils for $12! I paid $10 for 12 at the dive shop.

The first day out on the boat I was retching over the side and the seas weren't that bad. My wife was never hot on the live-aboard idea and given me and my son's seasickness maybe sketch that idea for good.

You probably already know this but the active ingredient in Bonine is meclizine 25 mg. If the brand name Bonine is not available, is meclizine perhaps available under another name? Alternatively, is it still available by prescription. Even then, in the US, its inexpensive but would mean a doctors visit unless you have an appt coming up and just ask for a script then.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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