Buoyancy problems and nausea

[Violet]

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to get certified and need advice. I took a discover scuba course and everything went very well. Then during my first pool session I did well except towards the end (around 9pm) got very nauseated but finished all my skills. I also had a lot of buoyancy issues and my instructed played around a lot with my weights because I kept falling on my back when trying to kneel on the floor and also every time I tried to move horizontally I would keep spinning so I was belly up instead of belly down. I figured I got nauseated because I was hungry and struggling with trying to be "right side up" for my skills.
2nd pool day I had a bland meal at lunch and dry snacks until my class at 5pm. I ended up getting a dry suit as the open water part (next day) was going to be chilly. Well I had a lot of problems staying right side up again due to air in my feet. As soon as I recovered I would turn upside down again. So after 3 hours I was horribly nauseated especially when I got to the surface of the pool and basically couldn't stop throwing up. I wasn't dizzy at all just really nauseated. I've been on a lot of boats but never seasick. So now I'm stuck as to what to do now. I'm not sure Ill be able to complete the open water part because I just can't get from point A to point B without turning over and struggling to stay "right side up" for whatever skill I'm trying to do. I'm about to just give up :-(
has anyone else had this problem? What do I do?

 

[Donnah]

What a horrid way to start your diving experience! My first thought is that the nausea is caused by problems equalizing and that there is something going on in your middle ear. I don't understand why you would fall on your back in the pool unless you are very over weighted and you have lots of weight toward your back. I also don't understand why any instructor would put a non-certified diver who has buoyancy problems in a dry suit, which adds a whole new dimension to buoyancy.

I wouldn't give up on diving, but it might be wise to give it some time and start over someplace else with a more experience instructor.

 

[rick00001967]

i was gonna reply to the op but donnah said pretty much everything i was thinkin

 

[The Kraken]

Donnah did an excellent job of addressing your issues.

Next class, ask the instructor gear you up with a nearly depleted tank and go to the deepest part of the pool. Ask him to systematically remove weight until such time you start to rise, with no air in your BC, when you take a deep breath.

May help, may not.

Safe dives, safer ascents . . .

the K

 

[OtherHalf]

What tank did they have you in? If they've got you in steel for some reason it'll make your weighting want to fall backwards. move your weight belt around so the weights are in front of you instead of on the sides or the back.

 

[TMHeimer]

As in the good advice already mentioned, doing a proper weight check and improving your trim should stop all that spinning around in the pool. I haven't observed anyone becoming nauseated in the pool before. If you still have it when you fix up your buoyancy maybe ask a doctor. It would seem unlikely that diving itself causes your nausea but not being on a boat--it's usually the other way around.

 

[fnfalman]

Too much weight concentrated around the waiste/back area, hence the turtling issue.

A "good" instructor should be able to resolve this issue. Frankly I met many instructors who have zero understanding of trimming and ballasting. Hopefully yours does.

As far as the nauseating thing, it could be because you struggled too much and stressed out to heck.

 

[spectre184]

I to have nausea problems. But mine is when I'm out under the ocean with waves. I'm fine on boat and while I'm under water but as soon as I surface I start chumming the fish. Do you have ringing in the ears? I do and doc said this can throw off balance and cause nausea. I read somewhere ( you may want to search) that some how with ringing ears and balance (motion sickness) being thrown off your body thinks it has toxins/poison in it and what's best way to get rid of it? Hurling and empting contents of your stomach. I've dove local lakes and not had problems. But then there was no current or waves to deal with. I also did read somewhere (maybe DAN? They have a lot on good info) that if possible try and belch out all air in your stomach before you dive. Just like lungs any air in stomach will contract and expand upon surfacing and can cause sickness. I now use Transderm Scōp patch (Prevent Motion Sickness - Transderm Sc?p® - Clinically Proven Motion Sickness Patches) with better success. It's by prescription only. I used it last year diving great lakes and I felt little nausea on second dive but nothing like I've experienced before. Though real test will be here in couple months when we dive Key Largo. Good luck! I know what your going thru!

 

[Violet]

I had an aluminum tank and was wearing a weight belt with the weights on the back, but then we removed the weight belt completely and put the weights in the bcd, front pockets and behind the upper arm pockets, but that time I was in the dry suit. I didn't have any ringing in the ears at all. And when I got to the surface, I tried to belch but there was not any to belch out. And I'm almost 100% sure I wasn't swallowing air.
I did have some trouble staying equalized as I kept turning upside down and just couldn't stay at the same level. No ringing or hearing issues though. I think it really was overexertion because my first instinct when I would topple over or turn upside down was to use my arms and fins to try to get right side up. The other issue I think I had was the dry suit neck seal was tight- which is good to keep the water out but I feel like someone had a strangle hold on me. I wonder if some dive shop would just work with me to work on buoyancy first and then take the course. Scopolamine unfortunately is not for me because it knocks me out ..but it has been years since I tried it so maybe it is worth a try again.
I only had 2 skills left to complete in the pool before I moved onto the lake. I just don't want to end up in the lake (poor visibility and 20ft under) and experience buoyancy issues + nausea.
This shop has no refunds on the dry suit (which is fine) but won't let me finish without the dry suit when the weather warms up in about a month. So after all this, I'm pretty much broke for the next few months so maybe will reconsider another dive shop in about 6 months or so. I just hate to take another $400+ risk and not be able to complete it again so I want to see if I can solve this issue before I try again.

I to have nausea problems. But mine is when I'm out under the ocean with waves. I'm fine on boat and while I'm under water but as soon as I surface I start chumming the fish. Do you have ringing in the ears? I do and doc said this can throw off balance and cause nausea. I read somewhere ( you may want to search) that some how with ringing ears and balance (motion sickness) being thrown off your body thinks it has toxins/poison in it and what's best way to get rid of it? Hurling and empting contents of your stomach. I've dove local lakes and not had problems. But then there was no current or waves to deal with. I also did read somewhere (maybe DAN? They have a lot on good info) that if possible try and belch out all air in your stomach before you dive. Just like lungs any air in stomach will contract and expand upon surfacing and can cause sickness. I now use Transderm Scōp patch (Prevent Motion Sickness - Transderm Sc?p® - Clinically Proven Motion Sickness Patches) with better success. It's by prescription only. I used it last year diving great lakes and I felt little nausea on second dive but nothing like I've experienced before. Though real test will be here in couple months when we dive Key Largo. Good luck! I know what your going thru!

 

[TSandM]

Violet, read the journal of my open water course that is linked in my signature line. I had many of the same problems, including falling over when trying to kneel, and turning turtle, as well as vertigo and somersaulting.

It is DIFFICULT to kneel in scuba gear, if you are correctly weighted. If you are weighted as you ought to be, you and your gear weigh about five pounds underwater. Often, almost all of that tendency to sink is behind you, and so, when you try to kneel, your tank wants to take you over backwards. It doesn't matter, because DIVING IS NOT DONE KNEELING!!!! If an instructor saw you having this much trouble staying stable on your knees, he should have demonstrate that you could lie on your stomach or lean forward and balance on your fin tips instead. It's a much easier position to hold.

Turtling can be due to several things. To begin with, the tank is negative when it's full, which means it wants to sink. If it's perfectly aligned with your backbone and your body is flat and horizontal, it doesn't matter; the air in your BC will buoy you up and the tank will push straight down, and everything will cancel out. But if the BC doesn't fit well, and slops around on your back, the tank can get off center. At that point, it will try very hard to flip you over, and unless you have good fins and understand how to use them, over you go. You can learn to feel an off-center tank and shove it back into place with your elbow, or you can get gear that fits.

The more weight on the back of you, the more the tank and weights will act like a keel on a sailboat, only in reverse. The keel on a boat stabilizes the boat, because it's heavy and WANTS to stay at the bottom. The "keel" a diver wears DEstabilizes the diver, because it wants to head for the bottom, and the only thing preventing that is the diver's body and the lift from the BC. Just as a longer keel makes a sailboat more stable, a tank that rides high, or weights on the tank, will make instability worse on a diver.

There are ways of fixing these problems. The novice diver can rarely figure them all out by him or herself. A GOOD instructor will notice the problems and fix everything he can; unfortunately, too many are unaware that there are solutions, if they even recognize the problem to begin with.