u/ThrowRaBellaL

Hey, just putting this here for anyone who’s new to SLC / people who haven’t gotten out to the lakes yet. My family goes to east canyon every year for nearly 10 years now. We’ve seen it low before but this year is was disastrously low.

The problem I faced when trying to figure out what we were doing for the 4th was figuring out where we would spend our day. Of course, we love east canyon so that was an obvious choice. I even recommended it to a few coworkers because even when it’s been low, it’s not been as low as some of the more popular lakes near SLC (like Jordanell).

We didn’t have a winter so I tried to look and see if anyone had said anything about how East Canyon looked this year. I couldn’t find anything really, so I had guessed it was likely low but nothing we hadn’t seen before.

Once we curved around the hill and spotted the east canyon resort, where you usually get first sight of the south side of the lake, I could tell right away the lake was LOW. Like severely low. My parents and I have never seen it this low before. The swimming portion of the lake was so low that I (5 ft 3 in) could touch the bottom for most of the time. The lake was extremely muddy in some parts and you could feel the plants in the water when treading.

The lake is still (I think) a very good spot for paddle boarders or people looking to cool down. I would suggest that instead of parking at the designated area where you pay your get in, you pull off at one of the rest stops and walk down. That is of course if you are able to, if you have young children or elderly family members just go to the pay area because it’s more accessible. But if you are someone who just wants a good swim and paddle board sesh, it’s definitely better towards the middle of the lake.

Again, not surprised by the drought considering our states condition right now and I’m not putting this info out like it’s a surprise. I was expecting the water to be low. I just wanted this info to be put out somewhere for any one who doesn’t really know the local lakes well or is new to the state/visiting and needs honest info on the surrounding area.

I was seeing a therapist through last year and she had told me she suspected I have OCD based off of several things she found out through our sessions. OCD had never crossed my mind. I’m an anxious person and thought that the things I was dealing with were anxiety related. Anytime I talked to my mom about these things, she would tell me “you’re just anxious, everyone feels like this”. So I never really expected OCD.

Here’s a list of things that I thought were more on the normal/anxious side that I ended up finding out were related to OCD.

* Biting my nails, biting the inside of my mouth/tongue, picking at my skin, pulling out my hair (I’ve had really bad trichotillomania for 7 years now).
* Reoccurring thoughts that someone will break into my apartment because I forgot to set my alarm even though the alarm is always set.
* Thoughts that my family members/family pets have died because I receive a text or call without warning.
* Strong belief in Karma to the point that I will seek out good deeds when I feel like I’ll need good Karma.
* Repeated thoughts/fears of bugs crawling into my ears when I sleep (I have lost sleep over finding a bug in my apartment because I was worried they were hiding in my bed and would crawl into my ears).
* Over analyzing everyone else’s mood and immediately assume I’ve done something to upset them to the point that it’s all I think about, “are you mad at me?”
* Will have a thought/idea and have to run it by multiple people to get reassurance that it’s a good idea.
* over think decisions to the point of nausea/disinterest.
* go over a situation in my head until it’s all I can think about and have an anxiety attack assuming the worst outcome.
* come up with wild situations in my head then plotting out plans of how to avoid /survive and save my loved ones (I had to stop watching walking dead in middle school because I would fall asleep planning out how to save my family and then would scare myself when my plan wouldn’t work out in my head).

There’s other things I just can’t recall them right now. What’s things you thought were normal/anxiety related that turned out to be OCD?

I’m a 26 old female. 5’3, 200 pounds.

What started out as a cold has gotten more annoying. Last Thursday I started getting a slight sore throat right before bed, figured I was getting whatever my fiance had. Then Friday came around, felt sick but not horrible and sore throat gone. Went to work, my body felt the normal amount of achiness and fatigue it usually does when I’ve got a cold. By mid afternoon, I felt chills to the point shaking but no fever even though I checked 3 times. I felt loopy, like everything was a blur, so my boss sent me home.

Saturday was uneventful for the most part, save for an earache and not being able to hear out of my right ear. I figured this was due to congestion based on Dr Google and Dr Tik Toks education. Also based on evidence that I was in fact congested HORRIBLY. Like blowing my nose and nothing coming out. Tried saline nasal rinses, nothing could help except for medication.

Then came Sunday. Also pretty uneventful. Still couldn’t hear out of my right ear, but the aching was gone and replaced by an annoying dry-ish cough. Went to bed feeling pretty okay, but there was this sore feeling in the back of my throat.

This morning, Monday morning, I woke up feeling okay. Throat still hurt. Got ready for work, ended up calling out for the morning because my throat and face felt so swollen. Used a warm compress, popped some medicine tablets, and a squirt of Afrin; seemed to be okay. So I went to work.

Come 3 PM my neck is aching, my face feels swollen and tender with every sniffle, my throat SORE. Swallowing felt like a chore. Got off around 5 PM, take a look at my tonsils in my car window, white patches on both sides. Uh oh… strep? Mono?

Chugged some water on my way to the urgent care. Still tough to swallow.

Waiting in the urgent care waiting area, nose is dripping and hardly able to blow anything out. When I do get stuff out, it’s clear… suspicious because I for sure thought I had a sinus infection going into this. Get through urgent care, tell them everything I’m telling you.

They check my ear first because I still can’t hear out of it and now there’s ringing… popped a hole in my eardrum somehow, they tell me not to worry. There is some fluid and irritation in there as well. They check my throat, yes indeed white spots.

They do a strep test. Negative. Mono test… also negative. They prescribe me augmentin, give me a work release note for tomorrow and send me on my way. No explanation of what is happening.

As of now (2 hours post UC visit) face still extremely tight, despite taking more Afrin and medication. Neck still slightly aching from shoulders to just above nape of neck. Lymphnodes are still swollen. Throat still hurts.

I’m currently taking (and have been taking for the past 4 days):
* Afrin 2 sprays once a day starting on Saturday evening (have used 2x daily Sunday and Monday)
* Pseudo fed (generic CVS) every 4-6 hrs per instructions on box.
* ibuprofen 1000mg 2x daily
*DayQuil (both brand name and generic) Friday and Saturday once each day.
* warm compresses on my face 2x daily.

Is there any other reason I could have these spots on my tonsils and the tension in my face and neck? Also adding, my jaw feels a little tight, like opening it takes a lot of effort. Kind of feeling better after ibuprofen.