i have to take pain meds every night to sleep. but i always skip the night before a trip not knowing how it will effect the dive. the down side is i get no sleep which i know effects the diving. other than some slight congestion from the meds am i being over cautious.

The rule of thumb is 'ask your doctor'.

In general, what happens is that the medicine metabolizes faster because of the increased O2 at depth.

IM not a doc, but would think the negative side effects would clear you system with in 6-8 hours of taking.

DOC, (james) could probably answer you question, you might want to send him a pm

chris

thanks. my dr. was not to informed on diving etc so i was hoping maybe someone had a similiar situation and got info from say a DAN dr. or something.

I take vicodin and dive all the time. I have to for my neck.

Jeep: The diving side effects might be specific to the type of pain killer that you are taking. You might want to check the DAN site and/or give DAN a call.

thanks i thought DAN would be the best place for info just thought i would throw it out there in case anyone else had the same issue

Pain meds the night before -
You'll be fine.
You're much more likely to have problems from boozing the night before, than taking a pain pill to sleep.