[Lou]

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Ok, it appears I am developing a dislike for my latex neck seal  Every time I wear my drysuit the reaction around my neck gets worse.  Last weekend I wore the suit for 3 days in a row and here I am, 8 days later with still the remains of dry skin and....er....well light scabbing I suppose!

Now, on the third day I tried KY jelly but I am not sure if it just didn't work, or if it was too late by then.  Maybe I didn't use enough but I was worried about make the seal too slippy on my neck and getting a leak?

Seeing as i have another 2 day diving weekend coming up this weekend with the guys at Swanage, does anyone have any cunning plans to help?  I am fed up with the guys on the shop floor sniggering and comments like "enter the gimp!".

Cheers all

Lou

 

[John Gulliver]

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KY Jelly DOES work, at least for me, but you need to appy it liberally and from the very first dive if you are diving in a drysuit several days in a row. If I forget, I also get a bright red "noose mark" on the front and sides of my neck – very embarassing! Don't worry about it making your neckseal leak. It won't.
PS Have fun in Swanage.

 

[BSH]

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<font color='#0000FF'>

oo er, I use non perfumed baby talc, try that otherwise I think you need to stretch your neck seal.

Fiona

 

[MATTBIN]

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I saw Scott off DiveFun use a very thin stretchy underseal under the neck seal that wasnt latex. It was a stand-alone buy from a dive shop sort of thing. Slip it over your head slip the dry-suit on over it, might need to adjust the dry-suit seal to be a bit looser. So I'd suggest getting one and trying it before trimming the suit seal.
Dont know where he got it from, drop him a line via his website
www.divefun.co.uk he's very approachable.

Matt

 

[Lou]

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Hi Fiona

It isn't a "fit" thing so my seal doesn't need stretching.  It is more of a sensitivity to the latex, quite common apparently.  With me it started off as a red line with some slight swelling, like a slap mark.  Now when I get it it looks like a lovebite around half of my neck....most embarassing as John said!  It is also *very* sore.

Matt, was it a neoprene "adaptor" or what?  You'd think it would make the neckseal leak, putting something under it.  I have been thinking that if the worst comes to the worst I might have to change my neckseal to neoprene.  I would rather keep the latex though, hence trying to find something to work.

Lou

 

[MATTBIN]

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Lou
it wasnt at all thick like neoprene, much thinner, wasnt it called sharkskin or something in the old days of semi dry suits.
I didnt actually see him wear it on a dive.
Matt

 

[Dr Stevil]

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<font color='#0000FF'>THis might not be much help but the same happened to me recently, got really bad drysuit rash which lasted for more than a week. but it was a one-off (so far), hadn't happened before then and I've been using the suit for a couple of years now, quite odd.

Is this a new suit or new seal for you? does it fit my example? has it occurred before now and if so with the same suit/seal?

It could be some kind of biological blip which might not reoccur frequently. Latex sensitivity is well documented, not sure if anti-histamines would help, plus AFAIK most AHs are knwn to make you drowsy. Might be worth asking a diving medical referee of e-mailing "Scubadoc" for suggestions
HTH
Steve
Scubadoc link

 

[MATTBIN]

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Boots do AH that are non-drowsy, plain white i.e. no colours

 and good for al sorts of sensitivities.

Matt

 

[John Gulliver]

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As Lou says, it's got nothing to do with fit. Nor does talc help. I always talc my seals thoroughly with Simple (pure talc). I still get it. It MAY be latex senstivity, which as Steve says, is well documented, but I don't seem to get hand eczema from wearing latex gloves for dirty jobs. I haven't tried antihistamines as ALL antihistamines make you drowsy, whatever the manufacturer says (take a pharmacist's word on that!), although some are a lot worse than others. Whatever the cause, KY Jelly does solve the problem. As you say, Lou, it starts as a red wheal, gets worse after every dive, and is an open sore after 3-4 days.
Never go down without KY Jelly  

 

[MartinS]

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Lou
What you are after (I think) is advertised in May's copy of Diver mag - in the what's new pages, there's an article about a neck seal that goes inside your existing seal to prevent leaks. This might be what you're after - no promises though!
HTH
Martin

 

[Dominic]

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Given the allergy to latex is fairly common, I'm surprised nobody's come up with a silicon tube that can be stretched around the neck to prevent the neck seal coming into contact with the skin..

Quick, somebody, patent it and make a fortune!

 

[Darren27]

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My wife has a latex allergy.  It is quite common.  Unfortunatly once you develope it it wont go away.  Also if you dont have a reaction to latex now you could develope one at any time, it just depends on how your body tolerates it.

As to how to cope with it, the only thing really to do is get a neoprene seals fitted to your suit.  Continued exposure to latex will only make the condition worse and you could become oversensitised.  Another problem that can result is a reaction to the glue used on most neoprene items.  The glue contains coloffeny (think the spelling is correct) which is a natural tree resin and very similar to natural latex chemically and if oversensitive to latex you will react to coloffeny as well.

An over the counter hydrocautazone (?) cream will probably help if its not too bad, if not then you need to see a doc.

Hope that helps

Darren

 

[Mdemon]

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If you try KY, and find you're going through it like nobody's business (and it isn't cheap), try going to a Farm shop and buying jumbo pots of the lube vets/farmers use for sticking their hands up animal bottoms.

 

[Andy Phillips]

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Lou,

I used to get that it turns out it was the salt, try washing the seal with fresh water between dives, it worked for me.

Andrew

 

[John Gulliver]

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I don't know about Lou, but I'm fine for one dive and only have a slight mark on my neck after doing 2 dives the same day, so I definitely won't be changing to a neoprene "so-called dry" seal. The problem only occurs when I dive in my drysuit for several days in a row, and KY jelly solves it.

 

[Ian Murray]

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Lou,

Where you diving from a hardboat or a rib?. If you're going off a hardboat try removing the top half of your suit and rinsing the neck area with fresh water between dives. If you're diving from a rib try and lean forward with your suit on and have someone pour fresh water around the neck area.

I used to get this 'rash' alot. I found that it seems to be caused by the salt water crystalising and acting like sandpaper on your neck between the seal and the skin. If you wash the area and remove the salt then it helps prevent it.

Also as mentioned previously the use of KY is a must (try putting it on the neck as well as the neck seal) and should be applied before each time your head goes through the neck seal. You do get through quite a bit of the stuff (my partner's a midwife so this isn't a problem to me) But it's worth it.

If the worst comes to the worst then you can always cover the marks with some foundation. Before I found a way to stop the marking it was quite common to find one of the girls in the dive party 'to making you up' to hide the hangman's marks before a night out.

hope this helps


Regards, Ian.

 

[Lou]

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Thanks to everyone for thier advice.  getting wet again this weekend with the "YD does Swanage" venture and I will report how I get on.....

So, loads of KY and get someone to pour water down my neck.....

 

[Steve Summers]

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<font color='#000080'>Hi lou,

KY is to expensive I use boots aqueous cream it was about £3 for a huge tub.

Safe diving,
Steve.

 

[louigi]

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<font color='#FF0000'>Hi if the KY and loads of water being poored down your neck dosn't work, you may find that pooring loads of lager down the inside of your neck afterwards is an efective pain killer, it also tends to numb the efect of piss taking.

Louigi.

 

[Paul Beal]

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If you don`t like using KY -( because of the usual piss taking!!!) try using SUDACREAM. Available from any chemists, not too expensive and really does the job. It is oil based so will eventually rot your neck seal - good because you can change to a neoprene one.

I have had this problem since buying a membrane suit after several years of neoprene. I got it really badly all though last summer until I bought a big pot of Sudacream. I still got sore, but no where near as bad.  I have now changed to a neoprene neck seal and it has stopped it dead - no leaks either!! I am NOT however allergic to latex. I work in a laboratory and wear latex gloves on a regular basis - although these days most of the gloves we use are hypo-allogeneic, we have to wear latex ones occasionally for reasons I won`t bore you with.

One other thing I thought of about this: Do you dive with a buddy who always swims just behind you? I find that if I am looking around a lot the soreness is worse?

Paul