u/TwoForDee

Hello everyone,

Feeling a bit overwhelmed today. I noticed a cluster of red bumps on my left torso this weekend. Urgent care wanted me treated for shingles. Sent me an RX for Valacyclovir 1GM x 3 for 7 days. After my first dose, I feel like my eyes are crossing, dull ass headache, tingling/pressure in my chest and hot flashes/sweating. I am getting married next Saturday and I am feeling overwhelmed on what my best move is. Urgent care and pharmacy essentially told me that the chest issue is not a common side effect and then kinda threw their hands up. Do I try to continue course or do I just let it rock? Not sure if anyone could lend me some advice. Thank you!

Not an engineer, so apologies if any of this is phrased loosely — trying to understand the right scope before I start calling firms.

Property: raised ranch in CT (glacial till terrain, Naugatuck Valley). NRCS maps the lot as 100% Woodbridge fine sandy loam (map unit 47C, 3-15% slopes, "extremely stony"), moderately well drained, with a fragipan typically cited around 18-24". Neighboring/upslope lots on the same street are Paxton and Montauk soils (84B/84C), also till-derived. A property-level elevation dataset shows about a 21 ft drop across roughly 200 ft of lot frontage (~8% average slope), consistent with the mapped slope range.

Found a 1994 town health department file for this exact parcel — a septic suitability investigation with four test pits. Sanitarian marked "high ground water (<3 ft)," "seasonal high ground water," "seasonal flooding," and "underlying tight soil (<4 ft)" as present. Logged groundwater at 10" and 11" below grade in two of the four pits, 40" in a third, with soil mottling noted at similar depths. Same year, the health department cited the property for raw sewage surfacing in the side yard and ordered a septic repair — history says a pump chamber + infiltrator field was installed afterward, presumably because gravity distribution wasn't viable at that depth to groundwater.

Present day: buyer's inspection turned up a wet yard, standing water along a downslope property line, and pooling near the driveway, even after a fairly dry 48 hours (though a wet July/summer regionally). A drainage contractor who walked the site said a curtain drain would need to go too deep to be practical/cost-effective given the depth to the restrictive layer, and might not fully resolve it. Redirecting flow to a nearby brook was floated but raises downhill-neighbor and wetlands-proximity concerns (there's a mapped wetland upslope on the adjacent parcel, not on this lot).

Questions for people who actually do this for a living:

Given shallow perched groundwater over a fragipan (not true bedrock groundwater), is a shallow interceptor/curtain drain typically still viable at this depth, or does perched water on a restrictive layer usually require a different approach (e.g., deeper interceptor to the restrictive layer plus positive outlet, subsurface regrading, etc.)?

Would you push for actual subsurface characterization (test pits vs. borings, piezometers/monitoring wells over a season) before any design, or is a single-visit site walk plus the existing 1994 pit data enough to design off of?

Is this genuinely a geotechnical engineering scope, or more of a civil/site engineer + soil scientist problem, with geotech being overkill for a single-family lot?

Practically — do firms in your world take on small residential jobs like this, or is it more efficient to find a solo/small-shop PE who does this kind of work part of a broader civil practice?

Trying to get past "maybe/might" verbal opinions and toward an actual defensible diagnosis and scope before an inspection contingency deadline. Any input on how you'd approach this, or what red flags to listen for from contractors who show up without really understanding perched-water-vs-bedrock-water distinctions, appreciated.

First-time buyer under contract on a raised ranch in CT (built 1969). Inspection turned up a wet yard and a "spring" of water running along the property line and pooling near the driveway. Went deep on research and it turns out this isn't just a wet week — the parcel sits on Woodbridge soil, which has a fragipan (a dense layer around 18-24") that perches groundwater and pushes it laterally downhill instead of draining. Found a 1994 town health department file on this exact property documenting a raw sewage surfacing violation caused by a high water table (confirmed less than 3 ft down in two of three test pits), so this is a known, decades-old site condition, not a one-off.

Had a contractor out today who said a curtain drain would need to go too deep to be practical/cost-effective and might not fully fix it. Someone floated redirecting the water to a nearby brook, but that raises concerns about flooding the downhill neighbor and possibly needing a wetlands permit (there's a small mapped wetland uphill on the neighboring lot). Town public works is separately planning to install a basin + pipe to handle the street-side runoff near the driveway, but that doesn't address the backyard.

So my actual question: what kind of company or professional should I be calling for this? So far I've got:

- A specialized drainage/waterproofing company (basement systems franchise type) for the practical fix

- A licensed soil scientist for an authoritative water table read

- A civil/geotechnical engineer for an actual stamped drainage design, especially given the wetlands/brook question

Is that the right stack, or am I missing an obvious specialty? Has anyone dealt with a perched water table / fragipan situation like this and found a particular type of contractor or engineer who actually nailed the diagnosis instead of guessing? Trying to get a real, defensible scope and quote before an inspection contingency deadline, so "maybe/might" answers aren't very useful to me right now. Any advice appreciated.

31M with Hashimoto’s (TPO antibodies 271) trying to figure out whether my symptoms are thyroid-related, gut-related, nervous system related, or a combination.

Before medication, I was dealing with:

- Common headaches

- Neck pain/tightness

- dizziness/lightheadedness

- GI issues

- fatigue

- salt cravings

- weird “off” nervous system feeling

- caffeine sensitivity at times

I started 30mg NP Thyroid and honestly felt AMAZING for about 2–3 months. More energy, clearer mentally, overall much better.

Over time though, I kind of tapered back toward “meh” again. My provider increased me from 30mg to 60mg in March because my TSH was 2.72 and they wanted it closer to 1.

Since increasing to 60mg (5 weeks ago), I don’t think I feel better, and possibly worse:

- more headaches/head pressure

- more overstimulated/wired feeling

- caffeine hits WAY harder

- post-meal weirdness/lightheadedness

- GI sensitivity

- Waking up feeling crappy

One thing I’ve realized is my diet may have been extremely high fiber and relatively low protein. 

Recently I simplified meals more toward:

- eggs

- rice/potatoes

- chicken

- moderate fruit

Anyone have any personal insight to help me out? Thanks!

Labs for context:

October 2025 (1 month into 30mg NP Thyroid):

- TPO antibodies: 271 (high)

- TSH: 2.09

- Free T4: reflex not triggered / not measured

- Total T3: not measured

- Total testosterone: 361

- Free testosterone: 53.9

- Bioavailable testosterone: 115.6

- SHBG: 27

- Albumin: 4.7

- Prolactin: 7.7

- Thyroglobulin antibodies: <1

- FSH: 4.5

- LH: 2.8

April 2026 (still on 30mg, before increase to 60mg):

- TSH: 2.72

- Free T4: 1.2

- Total T3: 111

- Vitamin D: 39

- Vitamin B12: 484

- Total testosterone: 384

- Free testosterone: 57.0

- Bioavailable testosterone: 117.3

- SHBG: 28

- Albumin: 4.5