Need some good tricks for dealing with sea sickness.

[daniel1948]

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!

I always applied the patch about 12 hours before going on the boat, because it takes that long for the serum level to reach strength. I wake up extremely dizzy and dry-throated, sometimes to the point of sore throat. In very humid climates, the dry throat is mild enough to be easy to ignore, but the dizziness is extreme.

The first day I don't get seasick unless conditions are very rough. The second day the side effects have moderated considerably, but the protection from seasickness is also somewhat reduced. The third day the side effects are tolerable, but the protection is only moderate. The patch is supposed to be good for 3 days. And I have to put up with the side effects in the afternoon and evening of the first and second days.

With the Scopace tablet, I only had to take it an hour before departure, though an hour and a half was better. It lasted 8 hours, so I had no effects from it in the afternoon after getting off the boat.

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.

I am going to ask both my pharmacist and my doctor, to make sure. But unless they tell me not to, I am going to try it.

 

[daniel1948]

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

I found through Google an on-line pharmacy in the U.K. that sells Kwells, but they won't ship outside of the U.K. I found another in Australia, which will ship overseas, but prescription medicines require a prescription from an Australian doctor. I have emailed them to ask if Kwells requires a prescription.

Apparently the dosage is 300 mcg per tablet. My Scopace prescription was 0.4 mg per tablet. So the Kwells are 3/4 the dosage of Scopace per tablet.

I'll report here if they answer my email. Note: I have no idea whether the on-line pharmacy is legit. But at this point I am desperate.

 

[Code Monkey]

I get nauseated in elevators so I pay a lot of attention to these things. I have a write-up here: Travel.Adventure101http://travel.adventure101.com/seasick.html

 

[daniel1948]

I get nauseated in elevators so I pay a lot of attention to these things. I have a write-up here: Travel.Adventure101

I agree with everything in your article except food. I find that I'm much better on an empty stomach (but well-hydrated -- lots of water before going on the boat, and as much as I can manage while on the boat).

I was hoping for a miracle panacea, something as profound as "42," but apparently you have not found one either.

I shall continue to investigate Marezine and Kwells. I wish they could just cut something out of me to make the motion sickness stop altogether.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I agree with everything in your article except food. I find that I'm much better on an empty stomach (but well-hydrated -- lots of water before going on the boat, and as much as I can manage while on the boat).

I was hoping for a miracle panacea, something as profound as "42," but apparently you have not found one either.

I shall continue to investigate Marezine and Kwells. I wish they could just cut something out of me to make the motion sickness stop altogether.

I believe you can buy Quells across the counter here. Next time I am at the Pharmacy I will confirm and post

I can't eat .. full stomach for me is bad!

I need to get in the water quickly.

I have discovered that it is not possible to bring up your toenails but I am convinced I have been close!

 

[Code Monkey]

I was hoping for a miracle panacea, something as profound as "42," but apparently you have not found one either.

Scopolamine and its cousin Scopace are about as close to 42 as I've gotten. I do still need to keep track of the other stuff but, together, they allow me to keep getting wet.

+bowlofetunias: You're absolutely right -- getting in the water _does_ work wonders -- it _almost_ always solves my problems. I do remember a dive in the Caymans, however, that caused me to christen my regulator. The secret, there, is to hold the regulator in and let it flow, then block the hole with your tongue and purge purge purge.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Yes it was quite a relief (in more ways than one:doh when I found out you could safely spew through your reg. Haven't done it often since I tend to settle once I get a few metres down!

 

[daniel1948]

I got a reply back from the Australian on-line pharmacy. They said that no prescription is required as long as I am buying less than 5. The reply didn't say whether that was 5 tablets or 5 boxes, but I presume it's 5 boxes of ten tablets each, since they don't list a 5-tablet box. This is good news.

Getting in the water and getting down below the wave action definitely helps. On one recent trip they let me do that, and wait for them at 15 feet. There was a big swell, so I actually waited at about 20 feet. However, floating on the surface in a big swell can be worse than being on the boat. I was freediving in Ft. Lauderdale, with a big swell, and as bad as the boat was, being in the water was worse. A couple of times I had to leave the water before the class was over. I don't remember what I was using on that trip, whether it was Scopace, Transderm Scop, or Meclizine. I kind of think I was using Scopace. Even Scopace won't do it if it's rough enough.

 

[daniel1948]

I received the Kwells today. I placed the order on the 9th and it arrived today, the 17th. Five boxes of ten tablets each (50 tablets total) hyoscine hydrobromide, which according to a couple of different web sites is the same thing as scopolamine. The tablets are 0.3 mg each. My Scopace prescription was tablets of 0.4 mg each. So 1 1/2 Kwells would be just slightly more than one Scopace. The Kwells are in foil packets, so I cannot see the actual tablets until I open one, to know how easy it would be to split them.

My doctor's instructions when I got the Scopace prescription were that I could split them if I wanted, in order to take a half a tablet, and I could take up to two tablets if needed. Recommended interval was 8 hours, but I could take them as often as every six hours if I was taking less than two. So I figure if one Kwells is not enough, I can take two and it's like taking one and a half Scopace.

I won't have an opportunity for a real test until my next diving trip, and I don't know when that will be. But the good news is that folks who like Scopace and were upset when it was discontinued, can, at least for now, get it on line from Australia.

I do not know if there are legal issues, since it's by prescription in the U.S., but it's a lower dose, so I was not sure if it would come through, but it did. (And FWIW I have a prescription for the U.S. equivalent, just that that's not made any more. I would STRONGLY encourage anyone to consult your doctor before taking it, since there are side-effects and counterindications. Two that I am aware of are narrow-angle glaucoma and enlarged prostate. If you suffer from either of those, Scopolamine/Kwells should NOT be taken. There are probably others as well. Those are the two I know of. Scopolamine/Kwells can cause severe dizziness, dry/sore throat, and probably other side effects as well. Those are the two that affect me. In the correct dose, I can live with them.)

 

[carlmoore]

I know the feeling well - I can't read or work the GPS in the car as a passenger. Last week I dove off two large dive boats and one small boat I wouldn't consider fishing from (Cozumel, Roatan, Costa Maya). Tossed my cookies on the cruise ship and fed the topwater fish in Roatan when I came up in choppy water. I've tried low-doze Dramamine and it works pretty well. I know I can't eat before diving.

One of the guys I was diving with said he got motion sickness every time he went out and always took Dramamine so I don't feel alone here.

---cem / www.carlmoore.org