<p>Just got back from a half day of snorkeling and whale watching off the coast of Maui. Friday night we did a sunset catamaran tour for two hours and I had no issues at all.</p>
<p>Today, I had no issues of sea sickness on the boat, but once we got back to our condo, and I sat down on the bed after my shower, I started feeling like I’m still on the boat, rocking and rolling. It was an ‘explorer raft’ that we were on and there were some swells, but not too bad. Of course, I was also moving up and down with very small swells while snorkeling. I’m not necessarily nauseous, but just very annoyed! (yes, I know I will get no sympathy from all you who are digging out from the blizzards).</p>
<p>Someone tell me how to get off of this boat!</p>
<p>I had this same experience. I lived on my aunt’s 35’ boat for a week and it took me three weeks to feel like I was on steady land again Ug, that was 15 years ago and I still get queasy thinking about it. I also have had the same thing happen to a lesser extent when going on a short trip, such as snorkeling in Hawaii. </p>
<p>Hopefully, esp. since you had no issues on the sunset cruise, you will quickly regain your bearings. I know I’ve got a recurring problem; I’m just staying on land!! (unfortunately, land that gets the blizzards-ha!)</p>
<p>Think about what the cause: it has to do with the pressure in your ears. Does it help or make it worse if you take a shower or move your head? I know this may sound weird, but what if you try to remove wax from your ears? Does that help?</p>
<p>Your fluid in your semicircular canals (in your ears) is not yet settled down. This is what helps you with balance. Often when folks go on a cruise they have these “balance” issues for a while when they reach land. The same thing happens to astronauts returning from space travel. It will get better in a bit…takes a couple of weeks for some folks…a couple of days for othes.</p>
<p>Teri, it is possible that a combination of moving up and down on the waves AND swallowing some sea water during snorkeling might be meaking you a little queasy. Like other posters suggested, try drying your ears (there is a remedy called Swim-Ear which is sold at ABC Stores or Safeway on Maui, or it can be prepared by diluting some rubbing alcohol with water 1:1). </p>
<p>Additionally, even if you are not feeling like eating, try eating something light (I usually eat fruit) and drinking some fresh water or decaf sweetened tea to flush the sea salt out of your stomach and see if it helps a bit. I hope you feel better soon so you will be able to enjoy the rest of your vacation!</p>
<p>My H had another thought - do you feel like you have you been in the sun for too long? You might be dehydrated and/or overheated (it happened to him a few times).</p>
<p>I read Mary Roach’s “Packing For Mars” book recently, it includes good layman’s info about motion sickness (and useful for those of us not really thinking about it much in the eons since medical school). Basically the otoliths, tiny “rocks” in your inner ear, will have adjusted you to the boat’s motion and you have to readjust to land. Motion of these compared to input from your other senses- eyes- is conflicting. The same mechanism that means some of us get carsick when trying to read while in a car. You read about sailors having trouble when they first are onshore until they lose their “sealegs”.</p>
<p>Hope this helps a little. When you are on something like a boat…the fluid in your semicircular canals sloshes around to help you maintain your equilibrium and balance. When you get off the boat…the fluid continues to slosh (look at the example above about water moving in a glass). Sometimes this takes time to stop and you will still FEEL like you are rocking on the boat, even though you are not. </p>
<p>Usually this gets better quickly and gradually.</p>
<p>I expect, based on the experience of just about everyone I know, that your motion-sensing settled down within about an hour of your arrival back on land. Whenever I go SCUBA diving–or snorkeling–I “feel the ocean” for a while afterwards. I remember it from days of body surfing at the Jersey Shore when I was a kid. You could lie in bed at night and be back in the water. I loved it then and I enjoy it now. </p>
<p>It is not the sustained motion of the fluid in your inner ears nor is it the otoliths. Your inner ear fluid does not go on moving independently of your motion (or else you’d be seasick all the time). However, it is your brain’s adaptation to the motion it has come to expect, and it takes a while for it to re-adapt back to the “new normal.”</p>
<p>I remember years ago reading that it took people only a few hours to adapt to wearing glasses that reversed everything upside down–and the same amount of time to adapt back. Left to right was much harder (if I remember correctly) and some people did not adapt. (I did a quick google but didn’t find the research quickly. I’ll look tomorrow when I have more energy.)</p>
<p>I sporadically suffer from vertigo. First time I had it was a couple of days after flying. I thought I had a brain tumor or something, I was so sick (staggering around like an extreme drunk and hitting the walls when I tried to walk and throwing up so bad I seriously wanted to just die). The next time was after i was prescribed tamiflu for a really bad flu (now the warnings include that it may cause vertigo, I’d have rather just kept the flu - though it was a bad one - my doc even said I looked like I had been hit by a truck). Since them I have been very prone to it and even just swimming and watching, let alone going on, anything with a spinny movement can cause it - certain video games my son used to play, scenes in movies, even this very weird teacher at my daughter’s HS who walked and weaved around in a very odd way. Sometimes I don’t know what triggers it. It is something to do with the inner ear. No cure for it. As it can hit unexpectedly, my doctor told me to never go anywhere without my motion sickness pills. I carry meclizine with me at all times (meclizine is the generic name for the motion sickness medication sold under brand names such as dramamine - comes in bottles of 100 and is way cheaper than the brand names). I guess taking motion sickness pills tricks the body back into thinking it is not on a boat (even though it was not in the first place). </p>
<p>So if it is bothering you, take a couple of motion sickness pills. Sounds weird, but it works. (obviously if it continues you should check with the doc to make sure there is no underlying cause - I had to do some simple neurological tests to rule out neurological issues).</p>
<p>OP,
I have virtigo, I experienced it first after taking snorkeling boat trip. Now if it happens, it stays with me for several weeks, then goes away. I have learned activities that triggers it in my case and avoid them. I cannot bend down (I do not clean my house, no yard work), I cannot do yoga, I cannot have massage (this was the last one). I take vacations only at resorts where I can walk into a water from shore and be in soup of fish, so I do not need to take boat to snorkel. I will never go on cruise, as much as i loved it. Some chiropractors might help. Alcohol helps temporarily, no need to get drunk, just have one drink. </p>
<p>Avoid activities that cause virtigo, there is no other solution that I am aware of. I have been fine for couple years.</p>
<p>I can get sea sick on a boat on a lake! I find that if I have a drink it is much worse! So when ever I am around water I don’t drink. Makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>My father was a Merchant Marine Officer from his early twenty’s till his death many years later. He always said it took a few days to get his sea legs back when starting a cruise, and a week or more to get his land legs back when he came ashore. Mind you, his cruises lasted months.</p>
<p>So I headed the thread with the title motion issues because I wouldn’t necessarily call it sea sickness. I’m not feeling nauseous (at least not yet). In fact, when we got off the boat, we went out to lunch and I ate a huge hamburger, then had a shave ice. After I posted here, I fell asleep (was exhausted from the very early morning and all of the swimming) for almost two hours. Got up and it seemed to almost be gone. But now I’m feeling it again. I’m supposed to take D2 horseback riding tomorrow and we have to drive about an hour to get to the ranch. It’s the one activity she requested we do while here, so H may end up having to go with her if this doesn’t subside by morning. </p>
<p>Actually, it’s better when I’m standing up and moving around and worse when I’m just sitting. </p>
<p>Really didn’t swallow any salt water today and it was somewhat overcast, so I don’t think that played in. It was just the movement of the boat and going up and down in the (very) small swells while floating at the surface that did it.</p>
<p>I’ve never had this happen before, so I had no reason to take dramamine before, or even have it with me. Even if I had it with me, I never felt anything on the boat that would have suggested I needed to take it. </p>
<p>I guess my brain is just functioning very, very slowly today (not catching up that I’m not on the boat anymore!)</p>
<p>I could tell the Queen Mary was in the water and not in dry dock long before the tour guide asked what people thought. Do fine on ferries and the whale watching cruises, not at all interested in a cruise vacation, however.</p>