severe vertigo and seasickness at 20m

[Sea Squirt]

HELP!!

Last weekend, went for a dive at my usual stomping ground, with my Rescue instructor and another student. Fairly long ocean swells on the way to the dive site caused a little bit of tummy rolling, but nothing serious. As soon as I got in the water the feeling dissipated, so continued with the dive as normal.

unfortunately beset by nausea inducing problems at every turn. Just getting over initial seasickness when we ascended to about 16m, and the nausea returned. After levelling off, it went away again, until we were out away from the wall, watching a school of barracuda, when I suddenly got vertigo (and more nausea).

Returning to the wall, got stuck in some strong surge, yes, nausea again. My instructor kept turning to ask if I was okay, unfortunately every time he did, I was feeling okay!

I had to abort the second dive, as I just was not up to it. I put it down to being more tired than I thought that day, so rested up for a couple of days.

Then a few days ago, while practising search patterns, the same thing happened again. Strong surge, rolling swells, and ZERO viz. Swirls of sediment and sand in the water made it impossible to see what I was looking at (at one point, I nearly swam head first into a massive jellyfish, which just looked like a swirl of particles in the water), let alone search for a mising diver! I ended up having to drag my SPG along the bottom, after crashing head first into the sand a couple of times!

Has anybody got any suggestions about how to cure vertigo/disorientation while in the water? I'm going to hve to fall back on the old ginger tea routine before the dives, but need more help! No pharmaceuticals please...

 

[Bob3]

Have you had this problem before?
I'm thinking there may be a little more at work than just motion sickness, like maybe some congestion that's getting your middle ear plumbing tweaked a little.
Water cooler than normal? That doesn't help either. Were you clearing OK? Changing depth make any difference? How bout closing your eyes?
What's your shoe size?
Have I missed any questions?

 

[Sea Squirt]

Originally posted by Bob3
Have you had this problem before?
I'm thinking there may be a little more at work than just motion sickness, like maybe some congestion that's getting your middle ear plumbing tweaked a little.
Water cooler than normal? That doesn't help either. Were you clearing OK? Changing depth make any difference? How bout closing your eyes?
What's your shoe size?
Have I missed any questions?

bob3

took a while to get back to ya! Right, answers.

Yes, experienced severe nausea during a v shallow dive in pea soup viz. Seasickness? On occasion.

healthwise, conditons normal- apart from being a little tired.
water temps? 28-30C - toasty, plus full length wetsuit, no problem there.

I tried everything from staring at my gauge to shutting my eyes (but a bit difficult to do that while practicing search patterns!)

Ironically, just got back from a 5 day liveaboard where I did not experience ANY of this once. I guess it's back to the old ginger tea in the mornign routine..

Squirt

 

[landlocked]

Just curious, what were you breathing? Two of the symptoms to watch for while using Nitrox are dizziness and nausea. Unusual but..... Anyway, just a thought.

 

[BillP]

Hi Sea Squirt:

Vertigo and nausea frequently come up in discussions about diving maladies. There's a great deal about vertigo, nausea, and seasickness already on the board, and you might find some of it helpful. Rather than take the time to reinvent the wheel, I hope you don't mind if I take a shortcut and refer you to the archives here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.ph...id=35760&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

and here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.ph...id=35902&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

and here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.ph...id=35903&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

If you have futher questions after reviewing what's available, be sure and let us know.

HTH,

Bill