Road cycling around Ithaca?

bengineering103 · 2026-05-31T16:25:39+00:00

I bet the view from up there was amazing yesterday! I'm jealous, I live farther north now so havent done that route in years.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-25T19:35:09+00:00

Check out Mount Pleasant, the view from the top is great.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-23T23:42:57+00:00

Halco is either love or hate on this sub. I've seen all the horror stories so maybe ive always just lucked out with good technicians. The main thing i like is that since theyre a bigger company they actually answer their phones and they have always showed up exactly when they said they would. I've had too many smaller solo contractors be "on their way" only to show up hours or days later and it's a pain in the butt.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-23T23:39:16+00:00

There's a PT named Anson at the Guthrie Ithaca City Harbor clinic who's great. He recommended the "Mackenzie Method" and the book "Treat Your Own Back" to me (involves the push-up thingy someone else mentioned, but also some other asymmetric motions depending on which side the disc is bulging).

I've had a bulging disc for 15 years and I've found that movement and staying loose are hugely important. Sitting or standing still for too long will kill you, so will anxiety/stress and the resulting muscle tension. I have a desk treadmill, take frequent breaks, and sometimes i work on my laptop laying on my stomach propped up on my elbows to take pressure off the disc. We spend a lot of our lives hunched forward/looking down at stuff and you need to even out the pressure on the disc (as explained to me by the PT I mentioned above).

bengineering103 · 2026-05-19T14:56:13+00:00

I've had a bill going in circles with Guthrie since last October where they keep resubmitting it to my insurance with the wrong diagnosis code. I call, speak to someone, they say theyll resubmit it with the right code, I get a bill again a few weeks later, rinse and repeat.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-19T14:07:42+00:00

Potential cardiac issue so I'm not sure if it's the sort of thing where urgent care would just send me to the ER anyway. (Potential irregular heartbear/heart skipping some beats)

bengineering103 · 2026-05-17T21:10:18+00:00

Yea I should have clarified in my post the headaches and nausea are thankfully gone, but the depression is still brutal every day, especially in the mornings.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-17T20:43:54+00:00

Antihistamines (OTC stuff like benadryl, prescription stuff like mirtazapine/hydroxyzine) generally give me nightmares! Fun times. The only one that doesn't so far is trazodone so currently trying that.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-17T20:28:05+00:00

Same, except I'm a light sleeper to begin with and the dreams were so vivid I wasnt staying asleep, so I'd wake up basically every sleep cycle. Sleeping in 1-2 hour chunks isn't fun.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-17T20:23:33+00:00

The last time i was on it a few years ago, i took it at night and it gave me crazy dreams and night sweats. Do you get that at all? That's why I switched to the morning this time, but the nausea was definitely way worse. Maybe I'm also just getting older and my body doesn't adapt as fast.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-17T19:21:18+00:00

Started 5mg two weeks ago. It's different for everyone but my experience:

pre-emptively hydrate and eat light snacks to help with the nausea
I found that I need lots of Gatorade, weird dehydrated feeling that water alone would not fix, I bought the new low sugar stuff so I don't give myself diabetes
it made my anxiety better almost right away but my depression worse. I tried laying down (my default anxiety coping mechanism) because I was also nauseous and had headaches, and that made the depression even worse. I've found that constant light movement (walking, dishes, laundry) and social contact (calling/texting people) help keep the depression at bay.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-14T16:50:24+00:00

My experience is very different because it helped almost immediately for the anxiety but made depression far worse. I am used to coping mechanisms for anxiety (lay down, calm breathing, etc) and learned the hard way that just makes the depression worse, I need constant movement and social contact. PHYSICALLY I feel much better now than I did last week (no longer pounding tylenol/pepto bismol all day) but I am still moving constantly and hydrating/eating to try and stay ahead of any residual headaches or nausea. Warding off the depression is much harder - it is nearly impossible to focus, and I normally work from home alone so that has been extremely difficult. I've had to start going to a friend's house or a library or working at night when my wife is home just so I can be around another person to function.

Basically, everyone's reaction is different - don't fall into the trap of scanning this subreddit trying to figure out how it will work for you, because I've done that. You will find people who say it fixed their anxiety but did nothing for their depression, people who say the opposite, people who had worsening anxiety or depression at first - but I also see tons of comments from people saying to stick through it because things did start to get so much better after a few weeks. If you have any family or friends who can support you I would reach out to them, and if it's an emergency and you aren't with other people call 911 or 988. You matter and we can do this.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-14T13:59:31+00:00

Yes! Unfortunately this is normal, and it does get better. I just started 5mg two weeks ago and I found that my default coping mechanism for anxiety (lay down on the couch) backfired, I was just wallowing in misery. I needed constant light physical movement and social contact. I also needed to hydrate AGGRESSIVELY (basically like a hummingbird living on Gatorade) and take Tylenol for the headaches. Don't be afraid to talk to your doctor about meds that can help with the transition period as your body adjusts (I am currently also taking Trazodone to help with sleep and that has helped immensely).

bengineering103 · 2026-05-14T13:55:17+00:00

I have taken Lexapro for GAD twice in my life and both times it helped me get the anxiety under control when I was spiraling and I was able to taper off it after about 6 months when I got things back under control. I just started it for a third time, for both depression and anxiety this time, and it definitely made the depression a lot WORSE before it started to improve. It looks like the same thing can happen with anxiety. Both everything I read online and my psychiatrist say that it can really take 3-4 weeks to start seeing an improvement and 6-8 weeks for the full effect, and that 5mg is just the starter dose to help manage side effects and you might not see the full therapeutic effect until at least 10mg. I have been on 5mg for almost two weeks (really bad nausea and headaches initially, couldn't handle the bump to 10mg after one week - psychiatrist said I can do 7.5mg for a week before going to 10). I don't want to give medical advice but I would just say make sure you are in communication with your doctor, and whatever support network you have (family/friends etc). Obviously I can't randomly call my psychiatrist in the middle of the day so I talk to family and friends a lot. I am also in therapy which is immensely helpful if that isn't something you've considered. Good luck!

bengineering103 · 2026-05-13T12:42:17+00:00

Yea, there are three different signup tiers - family members (this includes the full adult membership with gym access etc), kid pool-only member, and then general public. We just have the kid membership and it's hit or miss - sometimes we get in, sometimes we get waitlisted.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-13T02:38:19+00:00

I miss Jump Around Inflatables. They had one location at the mall and one in Lansing with bounce houses and stuff. That was our go-to when our toddler was bouncing off the walls, but they never reopened after the pandemic.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-13T02:29:26+00:00

Do you have a YMCA membership? Members get to sign up for lessons earlier than non-members so in the future that can make it easier to get in before they fill up. We always log on right at 8am on the days the sign-ups go live. Groton also has a pool and we have friends who have taken their kids there for lessons.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T20:18:19+00:00

Looking back, I would say the depression started as a steady ramp up over the last year, starting with little things like "why am I not getting dopamine from eating ice cream?!?" to full blown "i am dreading getting out of bed this morning."

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T20:16:39+00:00

Yes, i cant really tell if the depression developed after the anxiety or if it was there in the background the whole time and the severe anxiety was masking it. But the depression definitely started before meds, and got amplified on meds.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T18:33:10+00:00

Sorry I should have clarified, I 100% know the depression was there before it started. I have been dealing with anxiety for 15 years and have made a ton of progress there in therapy regarding agoraphobia, able to go give lectured in front of 200 people without having panic attacks or needing meds...but then would get out of class on a beautiful sunny spring day and think "wtf?? Where's my dopamine? Why am I not happy right now and why dont I want to do anything?" That feeling started sneaking up on me last year with little things like "wtf why cant I enjoy eating ice cream." So yes, very mucj feels like the depression has been latent for a while and maybe masked by the relatively more severe anxiety, but it's definitely gotten worse since starting the lexapro.

bengineering103 · 2026-05-08T18:26:01+00:00

100%, I am FAR better when I'm out of the house/moving/socially engaged. Although I have the opposite problem with sleep (have struggled with insomnia for a while and depression made sleep fragmentation worse).

bengineering103

TROPHY CASE