Life was a little frightening last week. Tuesday was discombobulated to begin with. Instead of the normal everyday routine, Reggie and I had to head into “the city” after dropping Lyd off at school (we live in a small town, I’m never happy about having to drive in). I found a pith helmet for Lyd to wear for “What do you want to be when you grow up?” day, in Lyd’s case—a zookeeper. You know, because zookeepers all run around wearing pith helmets all day. Right?
Anyway, Reggie and I had a nice lunch before heading Home, I gave her some warm milk and laid her down for a nap. I fired up the laptop to finally get back to work. Yeah, not so much. The Carbon Monoxide Detector started sounding off.
“Hmm. That’s odd.” I pulled the battery (because I got the message, Carbon Monoxide, yes, I know) and went back upstairs to air out the place, within 45 minutes the Gas & Electric guy was here with his super detector. He was glad to see the windows were open, but the CO levels had him pretty alarmed. When the CO began to build upstairs, I pulled Reggie from the crib and got her back downstairs where there were open windows and a cross breeze.
It was the furnace, she’s an oldie, older than I even realized, apparently it was built in the 1950s. It was shut down until further notice (not a good thing if it’s early March and you live in Wisconsin). We slept that night with space heaters (and the blown fuses that go with space heaters. Don’t run the dishwasher! Lesson learned!) and first thing in the morning three nice fellas were taking out the beast and replacing it with a new and updated furnace.
Thank God we rent, thank God for the fast turnaround time of our landlord and these furnace guys. Thank God none of us died in our sleep!
This whole experience made me realize that I know little to nothing about Carbon Monoxide. So I decided to hop onto Google and Wikipedia and regurgitate a few salient points about this stuff.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is colorless, odorless and tasteless, (similar to Iocane…you know…Princess Bride? Never mind). Carbon Monoxide is toxic when encountered in concentrations higher than 35ppm (parts per million, I could explain it but I won’t. It’s a measurable unit.) It reached 25ppm when the Gas & Electric guy was here.
It prevents blood cells from carrying oxygen, it can cause brain damage, and it can kill you, particularly in your sleep.
It’s the most common type of fatal air poisoning in most countries.
Symptoms of carbon Monoxide poisoning include:
-headaches
-dizziness
-nausea
-breathlessness
-you can collapse
-you can experience a loss of consciousness
With children, the symptoms are similar, look for listlessness and a lack of appetite.
Now, I tend to stay away from medical websites. It’s a little too easy to note every single symptom and blow it out of proportion. However, I have noticed, before this little CO scare, Lyd just kind of picking at breakfast a few times.
And as for myself, for about the last four or five weeks I have been ridiculously tired. Tired as in, “yes it’s only 7pm, but I am literally falling asleep while standing” kind of tired.
I didn’t really have any of the other symptoms, just really tired. This fatigue is so out of character for me that I can’t help but think it was Carbon Monoxide. The Gas & Electric guy told me that my fatigue was also a symptom. I’m a Stay-At-Home Dad, and that “Stay-At-Home” part is actually pretty literal. If anyone would be suffering CO poisoning it would be me and Regina (who really didn’t seem to show any symptoms, at least not to me.)
Death from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is a pretty scary thing, and the reality of it hit me pretty hard this week. Images of my daughters looking like they are sleeping peacefully, not responding, not waking up, kept playing in my head. It has been chewing me up from the inside out ever since.
Think about that, just imagine your children not waking up. Picture a Police Officer kicking in the door and discovering you and your entire family dead.
What really scares me is that these symptoms are pretty easy to pass up. When you live in the northern parts of our country, everyone is suffering through a bit of seasonal depression, winter can be a tough thing to endure – the listlessness and fatigue in particular. Everyone in this state is listless and tired this time of year!
Anyway, the new furnace has been installed, it’s been one week now. My energy level has made a complete turnaround, as in I have energy again, I’m not nodding off at the laptop, and I’m not feeling the urge to go to bed immediately after supper.
I’d like to thank my landlord for his nearly instant reaction time to this, I’d like to thank Madison Gas & Electric for being on the scene about as quickly as one can hope, and I’d like to thank the guys at Baybrookes Heating and Cooling for having that new furnace installed less than 24 hours after that CO detector went off. These guys did it with a smile as well. Reggie charmed them to no end.
And for you the reader, when you finish reading this piece, make sure you have a CO detector in your Home. If you already have one, then give it fresh batteries, right now. Death by Carbon Monoxide is awfully tragic, especially in lieu of how preventable it all is.
Stay safe everyone.