Seasickness

[Stemar]

My suspicion would be that it was the tiredness as much as anything

Quite likely. I was part of the service team for a car on the RAC rally, which meant no more than a few catnaps over a few days. By the end, bushes were getting up and wandering across the road in front of me.

I know, I know, but I was still young enough to still be immortal ?

 

[Neeves]

The problem with that is the word "General" in GP. ie knows a bit about everything but is an expert in nothing. These days you are as likely to see your GP checking your syptoms on the net or even googling them to be sure - its happened to me!

I have only ever been sea sick twice and it was so miserable an experience and so disabling that I always use Stugeron. However, I once had the same hallucination experience when crossing Biscay and being on watch for 36 hours. My suspicion would be that it was the tiredness as much as anything which was the issue with me and possibly with the OP..

Try staying up and functioning for 48 hours without the patches to see if that is true. Either way you cant afford to do anything other than day sail until you find the answer.

I had not realised that our medical systems had diverged so much - nor thought that a sailing forum was the best resource for serious medical advice. Though I fully accept their may be medical professionals who are forum members. I would hope professional forum members would need more information on the OP before offering solutions - the introduction b y the OP seems a bit brief to enjoy a full and detailed reasoned response - given the responsibilities of anyone offering a reply.

Here our GPs are no different to yours - except we get referred to an expert in whatever field - under the publicly funded system. The GPs know and accept their limitations - and refer.

Maybe that's why it was called 'the lucky country'

However - despite the divergence of our systems - I would still recommend the OP asks his GP - not on a Forum.

Jonathan

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Though the OP should ask his GP, his GP is unlikely to have experience or background understanding of the effect of staying awake for 48 hours while sailing and taking sea sickness tablets - particularly the balance between the undesirable effect of drowsyness versus nausea/incapacity if nothing taken.

The forum here has folks who have done just that and can advise on what medication suited them. The normal medical approach if there is lack of data, is to try something out under close medical observation. I think that is sort of impractical for the OPs long voyages so medication might have to be selected based on user reviews.

I take stugeron( cinnarizine) if its rough but have had no issues with kwells (hyoscine). Both cause drowsyness, and stugeron affects me more but hyoscine is slightly contra indicated if one has enlarged prostate as I have.

Stugeron is an antihistamine and sadly sometimes I have to balance the sedative effect of antihistamines against my need for alertness in my safety critical professional life - . Its a b**ch

 

[johnalison]

Though the OP should ask his GP, his GP is unlikely to have experience or background understanding of the effect of staying awake for 48 hours while sailing and taking sea sickness tablets - particularly the balance between the undesirable effect of drowsyness versus nausea/incapacity if nothing taken.

The forum here has folks who have done just that and can advise on what medication suited them. The normal medical approach if there is lack of data, is to try something out under close medical observation. I think that is sort of impractical for the OPs long voyages so medication might have to be selected based on user reviews.

I take stugeron( cinnarizine) if its rough but have had no issues with kwells (hyoscine). Both cause drowsyness, and stugeron affects me more but hyoscine is slightly contra indicated if one has enlarged prostate as I have.

Stugeron is an antihistamine and sadly sometimes I have to balance the sedative effect of antihistamines against my need for alertness in my safety critical professional life - . Its a b**ch

Although cinnarizine has antihistaminic effects, it is somewhat different from the older range of antihistamines, and is often used for its vasodilatory effect in improving balance problems. It is a long time since I studied pharmacology but one thing I do remember is that many drugs have overlapping effects, many showing 'anticholinergic' effects giving rise to dry mouth and disturbance of vision. The older antihistamines such as Dramamine, as well as being less effective than modern ones for hay-fever, tended to be much more sedative in proportion to their effectiveness against sea-sickness. They will work but for most people cinnarizine/Stugeron will be preferable.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Although cinnarizine has antihistaminic effects, it is somewhat different from the older range of antihistamines, and is often used for its vasodilatory effect in improving balance problems. It is a long time since I studied pharmacology but one thing I do remember is that many drugs have overlapping effects, many showing 'anticholinergic' effects giving rise to dry mouth and disturbance of vision. The older antihistamines such as Dramamine, as well as being less effective than modern ones for hay-fever, tended to be much more sedative in proportion to their effectiveness against sea-sickness. They will work but for most people cinnarizine/Stugeron will be preferable.

As a person who has some allergies and is still recovering from wasp sting 5 weeks ago such that I reluctantly needed a GP consultation to cause the hives to recede enough for me to concentrate on work this week, I am well aware that modern antihistamine type drugs cause less drowsiness (GP prescribed Fexofenadine as better than over counter Cetirizine, and it is). Immediately on the wasp incident I used piriton as emergency treatment to hand, and declared myself sick.

However stugeron and indeed most antihistamines warn of drowsiness, and I can confirm minor effects. There is a price to pay for every action, and no drug has nil side effects.

 

[Poignard]

Now we've had all the sensible and serious replies may I offer a tried and tested method of preventing seasickness?

Sit under a tree.

 

[Sandy]

Now we've had all the sensible and serious replies may I offer a tried and tested method of preventing seasickness?

Sit under a tree.

What do you 'prescribe' for that terribly debilitating condition 'mal de debarquement syndrome'?

 

[oldmanofthehills]

What do you 'prescribe' for that terribly debilitating condition 'mal de debarquement syndrome'?

Beer and wine

 

[Poignard]

What do you 'prescribe' for that terribly debilitating condition land legs?

I don't know what cures it but I know what makes it a lot worse:

arriving in St Lucia after crossing the Atlantic and being handed a large glass of rum punch!

 

[johnalison]

Now we've had all the sensible and serious replies may I offer a tried and tested method of preventing seasickness?

Sit under a tree.

Far too dangerous. You could be struck by lightning.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

The only trees I might spot on for me the longish crossing to Ireland or Brittany, are rather waterlogged and I fear striking them and sinking under then rather than sitting.

 

[RobF]

Lots of UK GPs will also have an area of speciality (Paeds, Gynae, Minor Injory etc). You may find one at your practice who has an interest in tropical medicine or is ex Forces who may be a bit less generalist.

The GPs I know are reasonably good at interpreting the BNF and able to translate this into plain english.

As for me, I find Avomine to be the best solution so far. I did try a Scopoderm patch and whilst it made me bullet proof down below in F7 crossing the Channel, I did experience some unpleasant side effects (thirstiness, metallic tastes, blurred vision etc). If I had to take it again, I would probably cut it in half to reduce the dose. This said, the side effects did go after 48 hours, so perhaps I would add the second half then.

 

[LooseHeadPop]

Some observations:

It's unclear how long the OP had been awake when he had hallucinations. But I'm sorry, I take the view that ocean passages single-handed are not to be encouraged.

I suffer from seasickness in no uncertain terms. I've not used scopoderm patches, but plan to because a couple of years ago I discovered that Kwells (which I had dismissed as a lightweight solution because of the name) worked well for me. They have the same active ingredient. On a famous stormy passage from Brighton to the Hamble I was fine all day until six hours after I had taken the Kwells, when I was sick. You're supposed to take them every six hours.

I tried and tried with Stugeron in earlier years, and it never worked.

cheers

 

[capnsensible]

I had not realised that our medical systems had diverged so much - nor thought that a sailing forum was the best resource for serious medical advice. Though I fully accept their may be medical professionals who are forum members. I would hope professional forum members would need more information on the OP before offering solutions - the introduction b y the OP seems a bit brief to enjoy a full and detailed reasoned response - given the responsibilities of anyone offering a reply.

Here our GPs are no different to yours - except we get referred to an expert in whatever field - under the publicly funded system. The GPs know and accept their limitations - and refer.

Maybe that's why it was called 'the lucky country'

However - despite the divergence of our systems - I would still recommend the OP asks his GP - not on a Forum.

Jonathan

I'm not a doctor. Doing Ship Captain Medical and innumerable first aid courses gives me just a teensy skill in applying pills. ?

However I've had the great fortune in a twenty odd year pro sailing career that has enabled me to take a few hundred different people to sea on small boats. Including Doctors, Surgeons, Nurses, GPs, paramedics, etc.

So all I can offer are these observations. I reckon about 40 to 50 % of people get seasick whatever their profession, trade or skill. Most of those, with the application of some type of anti seasick remedy will get over it in a couple of days. Some will take a bit longer. A very small number simply never get over it ever. So boats are not for them.

The best remedies seem to vary a great deal from person so it needs a bit of trial and error. No simple solution. One we used a lot with a good deal of success were Boots (a pharmaceutical chain ) travel calm pills. Not for everyone but best of the lot.

Years ago someone recommended to us a German remedy that was applied by a chewing gum. Was raved about but I didn't find it. Personally I don't get sick and neither does my wife....although in my early days of sailing I did get it a bit. So I didn't ever do more research on that style of application.

However I did a lot of sailing, much of it offshore, in service yachts. The ultimate remedy was a bag of suppositories for those who couldn't keep down oral medicines. The threat of the application was often sufficient to effect a cure....... Normal in France for everything though. ?

Good luck to all of you who persist sailing whilst feeling so crap. It's not easy. ?

 

[Beelzebub]

What do you 'prescribe' for that terribly debilitating condition 'mal de debarquement syndrome'?

You mean that condition described by the German verb "Schwanken"?