Sea sick

[XPD]

Does anyone know best medication for nausea.

Last year I had a few trips where I was supposed to dive but
I have had spend my time feeding the fish instead.

It gets so bad that when I bent overboard to help
colleagues board the boat....

....I will safe you that bit.

So what is the best drug that is safe and
does not put you down to sleep?

Stemetil,Metoclopramide or cyclizine? I could not find any advise
re those drugs and diving.

Mac

[Fiona]

Mac

My mate Jenny always takes Stugeron at the first sight of a boat, just been away for 10 days and I am sure she didn't have any problems while taking them.

[ogobara2000]

Mac,

I don't want to sound negative but please be very careful with whatever advice you get over the internet regarding drugs.

Whilst probably people will have some advice I think you are definitely better off givng the DDRC or some other diving medic a call and ask about implications of various motion sickness tablets regarding diving.

Having tried a lot of different tablets, stickers drops, etc when i started to work on offshore vessels i can say that i definitely felt side effects such as diziness, dry mouth, or extreme tiredness. All those are indications of seasickness as well so obviously it is difficult to judge these effects accurately.
The problem is that if you really suffer from seasickness that badly i doubt there is mild enough medicine which will make you fit to dive without causing any harm. As a general advice i can only say do try to avoid any kind of caffeine before or during your boat ride as i think a cup of coffe or tea in bumpy weather really upsets your stomach.

Sorry for not being able to point to a simple solution but I don't think there is any.

cheers,
Osama

[peter_deveugle]

With the caveats of Osama above ...

I have grown an addiction to ginger biscuits and it seems to keep me out of trouble, so I am sticking to it. Also, after getting sick on a couple of trips in the Gulf of Mexico (long swells due to hurricanes out in the Atlantic), I started taking dramamine the night before and after diving and get uncomfortable less often (it does make me drowsy a little bit so I don't take it before a dive or a dive day).

Also, I cannot vouch for it as I haven't tried it myself but I have seen this sort of electrical wrist bands do wonders on a boat with 20 divers of which 15 were sick and three girls looked like they just flew in from Mars. After a night in which more garbage bags got filled below deck than an average town uses in a year, half an hour of application of that thing was like Lazarus walking around again.

My personal avoidance strategy these days (and it has been a while since I last fed the fish unvoluntarily), in order of application :
- Plenty of sleep
- Even more water
- No spicy food or coffee (weak tea at the most - thank god for England)
- A big bag of ginger cookies (for some reason Canada Dry does not work for me)
- Dramamine if feeling sick or some of the above got left out for any reason, usually means the end of a dive-series, but also the end of wanting to die

This has cut me back from 50% "chunky" trips to 1 in 10 or so.
If I were to get more often seasick again, my first instinct would be to buy an electrcial wristband (yes, in spite of looking ridiculous) and if really bad a scopolamine patch (if I have a friend that owns a pharmacy or a willingly prescribing doctor).

Hope that helps a little,
Peter

P.S.: Hesitated to say it as obviously I don't know you, but losing weight longterm also resulted in serious improvement for me ...

[DRE]

Key is to start taking Dramamine or Bonine well in advance (as in more than 24 hours) before boarding; that way you can get it in your system and you won't have to take a whole tablet when you step on the boat (helps with drowsiness) and make sure to buy the non-drowsy stuff (though a bit of drowsiness still is part of the deal).

As others have mentioned, make sure to be well hydrated and well rested before boarding.

[cys]

Everyone responds a bit differently to each med so IMO no one can say what the best med is for you. What I ended up doing is trying every commonly accepted seasickness med out on land to see how I felt first. In the end I found meclizine works best for me, taken the night before. Even tried Stugeron after picking it up on a business trip, but it was not good for me on land...

[Jonathan]

Hi Mac,

another vote for Stugeron - using it as a preventative before getting on a boat.

Not sure what you've already tried but there's a couple more things I do that might help you to avoid it:

Sort your kit out whilst in the harbour so you're not fettling on the open water. This means you can..
Look at the horizon where possible

Also chew - I heard this helps keep your inner ear bones free to move
Try not to go out on an empty stomach and keep hydrated

Hope this helps, I know how you feel, it's not nice.

Cheers

Jonathan

[XPD]

Thank you all guys.

I will start trying out the pills on land.
Will try to prepare neatly next time.

Thanks for all the advise.

Mac

[jluttichau]

Quote: (Originally Posted by XPD)

Does anyone know best medication for nausea.

I personally don't need it but a friend of mine does and she has good experience with a slow release medicine that you stick behind your ear. That way you don't have to swallow pills and remember to take them etc. she used it during a 7 day live aboard in the red sea with success.

Cheers
Jonas

[Gene_Hobbs]

and to add a little research...

THE BEHAVIORAL TOXICITY OF SUDAFED, BENADRYL, AND DRAMAMINE UNDER HYPERBARIC AIR.
Walsh and Burch, 1977
RRR ID: 4117
Note: This is an abstract, there is no article available. More available at RRR: 4252

Transdermal Scopolamine in the Hyperbaric Environment.
Schwartz and Curley, 1986
RRR ID: 3528

Hyperbaric oxygen and scopolamine.
Bitterman et. al. 1991
RRR ID: 2573

Effects of transcutaneous scopolamine and depth on diver performance.
Williams et. al. 1988
RRR ID: 2495

all from the RRR suggested reading list.