Need some good tricks for dealing with sea sickness.

[tinypigmy]

Drink lemon juice that as sour as you can drink. I found this trick from here

 

[Mike Boswell]

Over the years I have taken lots of friends out on my boats, and a certain percentage of them - I would guess about 20 percent or so - get seasick. A lot of times they blame this on the flu or too much fun the night before. I dunno...

I always keep an eye on my passengers, especially new ones, and if I see them start to get quiet and withdrawn, there is a good chance they are getting sick.

If we are stopped, I get the boat moving again if I can. If we are moving, I tell them to "take the wheel for a minute", and teach them how to operate the boat. Most of the time they soon start to feel better.

 

[Jax]

You are very lucky! I get severe dizziness and a dry throat which sometimes progresses to a severe sore throat on the first day of wearing the patch. The second day is not bad. The same side effects are much reduced. On the third day (it's supposed to last three days) I get seasick if the conditions are rough. Apparently I'm getting too much of the drug the first day and not enough the third day. Cutting the patch in half (which you are not supposed to do) does not help the situation much.

Scopace (the same drug in tablet form, to be taken every 8 hours) works for me, without side effects, probably because the dosage is better regulated than a one-size-for-all patch. But they've quit making it. I have enough remaining for one more trip, and then I'm all out.

Neither version works for me if the seas are extremely rough.

Daniel, not official, but I was given to understand the pills were being adulterated for drug abuse, like pseudophed is abused by meth addicts.

However, I agree with your findings on the patch -if the seas are rough, my seasickness will come through, anyway. However, it's all still better than without.

I get a bag of lifesavers or Jolly Ranchers for the dry mouth. I also drink a lot of water. I also find the side effects are less each time I use it.

 

[daniel1948]

Daniel, not official, but I was given to understand the pills were being adulterated for drug abuse, like pseudophed is abused by meth addicts.

However, I agree with your findings on the patch -if the seas are rough, my seasickness will come through, anyway. However, it's all still better than without.

I get a bag of lifesavers or Jolly Ranchers for the dry mouth. I also drink a lot of water. I also find the side effects are less each time I use it.

If true, that's too bad about the Scopace. I know nothing about the reasons for withdrawing it. It made sense that there was not enough demand. Drug companies are in business to make money. They will not make a drug that does not sell well enough to make them money. The Scopace web site has been taken down, so I cannot even write or call the manufacturer to ask.

The hard candies would probably help for the dry mouth with the patch, but a worse problem for me is the dizziness, and the fact that it takes 12 hours for the drug to build up in the bloodstream. I could take the Scopace one hour before going on the boat, and it was wearing off about the time the boat returned at the end of the day. I felt normal in the evening. But with the patch, the side effects are with me 24 hours a day for the duration of the trip, because with a 12-hour lag time I had to keep it on all day, and even then it was losing its effect by the third day.

I don't dive often. If I cannot come up with an alternative, I might just have to quit. I never did try out the Zofran, however. I'll have to screw up my courage and try it on my next trip. I might do a freediving trip in the spring, and I'd be spending less time on the boat than the recent dolphin trip, so it could be a good chance to try it. I'd like to hit 100 feet freediving, because the deepest I've ever been on scuba is 99. I've been to 90 feet freediving, so I think that 100 is not entirely outside the realm of possibility, given the high level of safety in place at the competitions.

 

[JohnsIsland]

Another vote for Transderm Scope, the patch. After my first day of skydiving (two jumps), I puked. I wanted to make a few more jumps, so I tried the patch a few weeks later. Voila, no more hurling. I will have to admit, if I turn continuously for an extended time in the air, I begin to feel like I might puke...but I can feel it and I stop.

I have puked once on a boat when I was a young kid, and come close one other time--off Lanai during a SI with rollers. I did use a patch another time that week and didn't have a problem.

I have seen others say the first day or so on the patch feels a bit "strong". When I use the patch for skydiving, I apply it 12-24 hours ahead (I only jump a day or two at a time, so I only need two days max.) I think I did the same, apply the patch the day before, when I used it diving at Hawaii. Perhaps applying the patch 12 - 24 hours ahead of time puts me at just the right dose for diving/skydiving, who knows. I did test the patch before I used it the first time by wearing it for 48 hours (I figured 24 hours prior to jumping and 24 hours for the day of jumping.) I think it's important to test the patch when not diving or something that could be dangerous.

I couldn't believe it when I came close to puking off Lanai, as I have been boating since I was born and only puked once, probably due in part to sympathetic puking in major rollers. I did puke once or twice as a kid in the car so I tend to think every person has there own triggers.

I think motion sickness is different for each person. To each his own... If someone has problems with motion sickness, I wouldn't rule out the patch, it might work.

 

[BDSC]

Marezine was recommended to me by my friends who dive almost every weekend off the coast of North Carolina. While I don't normally get seasick, if I know the conditions are going to be on the rough side I'll take one before going out. I have never gotten sick after taking one of these tablets. Here is a link to them and the reviews for using them are excellent.

Amazon.com: Marezine for Motion Sickness, Tablets - 12 ea: Health & Personal Care

 

[daniel1948]

I can't believe I've never tried Marezine. I don't think I'd ever heard of it, though a quick Google search shows that it's been around for a long time. The active ingredient is cyclizine, so I imagine it's similar to meclizine, which I use for car sickness, but is inadequate for seasickness for me. Still, it's certainly worth a try. Maybe I saw it in the store and thought it was just another brand of meclizine. But both drugs.com and wikipedia show them to be separate drugs. The "izine" ending suggests to me they are the same class of drugs, and both are antihistimines, with similar side effects and counterindications.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Guyotron]

We've recently returned from a dive trip and my girlfriend found out that she's prone to seasickness after our first dive. A diver from the UK gave her a package of Kwells travel sickness pills. The active ingredient is hyoscine hydrobromide. It saved our trip. She'd take one pill in the morning at breakfast and she was good for the morning and afternoon dives. Need to find something equivalent in the U.S. She had no side effects.

Hmmm... upon further googling, it appears hyoscine hydrobromide is scopolamine

 

[HJeffreyM]

I guess a good patch tip is to always apply it the night before the dive. That way you've "slept off" any sleepy side effects there might be. Now that I think about it, I probably put it on around 10pm the night before...so if it's a 8am boat, it's been on for around ten hours. I have not experienced any of the side effects some of you have mentioned. But if I had, I would have slept through them anyway.

Happy Diving!

 

[BDSC]

I can't believe I've never tried Marezine. I don't think I'd ever heard of it, though a quick Google search shows that it's been around for a long time......Still, it's certainly worth a try. Maybe I saw it in the store and thought it was just another brand of meclizine. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have never been able to find it in a store so I buy it on-line. I'm like you, I had never heard of it until my buddies told me about it. We went to Cocos this past August and several folks were taking meds before we left for the crossing. I took a Marezine the morning of the departure and one every 8 hours until we arrived. Even though the crossing was really easy, several of the folks on the other meds got sick. I never once felt bad in even the slightest way. I don't think you can find a better motion sickness med than this.