What is the best medicine for seasickness?

I tend to get seasick and I agree with everyone that prevention is the
best.
The patch is great if you have big waves and are in a small boat say
70-100 feet long-the kind you take on whale watching trips out of San
Frnacisco.
I find for those acute situations, it works great. But I take it off
right after as it does make you dizzy and gives you a dry mouth.

Meclizine and Bonine and Dramamine work well if you take it before.
But I always combine them with saltines and 7-up or Sprite and that
seems
to take care of it. We will be going to Antarctica in Feb and I plan
to take
everything. They are antihistamines so you need to be aware that you
may
get drowsy. But not everyone reacts the same- Example:for most
people, Benedryl
makes them sleepy. The one time I took it, it kept me awake all
night.
If you are taking a lot of prescriptions, I suggest you talk to your
MD
or pharamacist to see which one might work the best for you. It would
be
no fun if you had never taken anything before and then had a reaction
while you are on the ship.

Tracy

The best medicine is mildest that works for you.
We've had great results with plain old ginger tablets you buy in the vitamin
section of the drug store or health food store. Take a couple of these the
morning before you board then every 6 to 8 hours afterward for a day or so
into the cruise. Then you'll likely not need them anymore. Ginger has
virtually no side effects. If this doesn't work then try Bonine, then the
patch as a last resort. We had a friend who tried the patch and has bad
side effects.


"Finz Up" wrote in message
...
I am going on my first cruise Friday (WOOHOO) and was wondering what the
cruise veterans recommend to prevent motion sickness. I already have a
perscription for scopolamine patches, but have been seeing alot of people
recommend Bonine. Which does a better job with less side effects.

--
Maybe it's all too simple, for our big brains to figure out...
What it the hokey pokey is really what it's all about? JB

JOYCE:
I agree with you,we have been on sevral ships where the captain has
pulled up the stablizers to make up time during the night,and it made
for rough sailing

On Sun, 2 May 2004 09:35:55 -0400, "fishman"
wrote:


"Finz Up" wrote in message
t...
I am going on my first cruise Friday (WOOHOO) and was wondering what the
cruise veterans recommend to prevent motion sickness. I already have a
perscription for scopolamine patches, but have been seeing alot of people
recommend Bonine. Which does a better job with less side effects.

--
Maybe it's all too simple, for our big brains to figure out...
What it the hokey pokey is really what it's all about? JB

First off, what makes you suspect that you will have seasickness? It's not
required, and if you have no history of motion sickness there is no reason
to think that on a large ship, with stabilizers, that you will have a
problem.

Chris



Beg to disagree: In all my life, I never got seasick ( or airsick)
and this includes being out in a 50' fishing boat with 20' waves and
green water breaking over the bow and one time on a 747 with
turbulence so bad the FA's had to strap down and the damn plane was
literally *groaning* as the wings flexed. Never that is until a basic
7 day Mexican Riviera cruise on Star Princess.

We had a cabin waaaay up on Baja deck and were hitting some 25' seas.
(I do love Princess TV showing you the sea state.) I don't know if it
was the peculiar motion or if something I had at the extra-charge
Italian restaurant decided to go down fighting, but I got seasick, big
time. Bad enough that my wife had to haul me down to sickbay as I
couldn't stop throwing up. He gave me a shot ( I forget what, tha
knocked e out for a couple of hours but after that, I was fine.) We
got home the next day in calm seas so I don't know if it was
completely over.

Star Princess is a big ship with good stabilizers but we were really
rocking...waves were coming on the stern quarter which seemed to make
the motion worse.

Nect cruise was 14 days but there was almost no wave action ( so
little we kept waking up wondering if the ship had stopped..grin) so I
do not know if I got "sensitized" by that experience.

I *do* know I plan to carry Bonine from now on and take it if I feel
even slightly "off". Once was far more than enough...and the $85 to
the doc is something I'd prefer to avoid also..though at the time I'd
have mortgaged the house to stop heaving..grin.

I used to laugh at sea sickness, I don't any more. No need to pop
pills every time you get in a whirpool tub but never hurts to keep the
remedy handy.

Jim P.

"RTCReferee" wrote in message
...
Whether you will or will not have a tendency to succumb to motion sickness
is
anyone's guess; however, for your first cruise, I would suggest that you
take
some medicine with you, just in case.

You can read about Meclizine (generic name) at the following government
page:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...r/a682548.html

I have a friend that would like to cruise, but is very prone to motion
sickness. So, recently, I did some research to see what I could find.
Pretty much everything I had found, she has tried. But, I did run across
this one article that drew a fair amount of interest:

http://www.mikeogara.net/seasickness/

Hope that helps,

Jim

What a great summary-thanks so much for the info

Tracy