Foo - I almost died today

Wow. I seriously think I almost died today.

This morning, I woke up an hour and a half earlier than usual with an incredibly splitting headache. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got my dog out of the bed to take him outside. My dog didn't want to get up. He just kept kissing my face and trying to get closer to me.

Well, finally, I have to push him out of the bed. I go and open the back door and then sat down in the living room. My dog refused to go outside. He came and sat on my lap and insisted on being up in my face. All this time, my head is splitting.

At this point, I'm freaking out a little bit, so I decide to go out for breakfast and take my dog with me. I leave the house and my headache begins to subside. I came back home and walked in the house and my head started splitting again.

At this point, I freak out and turn off the heater (we have gas heat). I check my CO monitor and it is functioning correctly, so I call the gas company.

The gas company rep arrived at my house with all his machinery and lo' and behold, my house had 350 ppm of Carbon Monoxide. He told me that a few hours of that would be fatal.

Apparently, my CO detector only picks up at 400 ppm when sustained for 15 minutes. :eek:

The maintenance people in my housing complex came and worked on it (I'm not sure what he did because he spoke ZERO English) but they say that it's fixed. Even though they say that, I'm still scared to turn on my heat tonight.

Thank God for my dog, though. If he hadn't acted so strangely, I probably would have just tried to go back to sleep and thought I just had a bad headache.

Dog are amazing. My wife dog can tell when her blood sugar is low and sits at her feet and whines. Glad you figure it out and hopefully got it fixed. I'd look for a better monitor

Wow! You are extremely lucky! Dogs are the best though ain't they?

damn! Freaky...

my dog is too dumb to save a life.

Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thought that (I guess DUMMY me) when you set on e of them up - you were golden! Like Safe!!

:eek:

Very Glad to hear it worked out, but OMG - I mean I just sold my (and Mom's) double house where we had to have all sorts of detectors, etc to be legal - including CO2 and I guess I didn't ever read the things - just put them up - wanted to be of code and ....

crap. I mean where I am living now temporarily - there is minimal smoke detectors (fixing that Thursday), and CO2 ... ? Not to be seen. But now it seems that you can still have a PROBLEM and it wont' go off??

CRAP!!!

I'm glad you're okay. Things like this can make you pause and appreciate things that might otherwise be taken for granted. Give the dog an extra kiss on the head and biscuit tonight!

Buy the puppy a steak! Glad to hear that you are okay and had the presence of mind to connect the headache and the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning.

DT , glad your ok. We had a similar thing happen in our home 2 years ago. It turned out to be the gas hot water heater. Switched to a tankless/on-demand water heater that forces the exhaust outside with a built-in fan. 300+ ppm is not good. You need to find out what was repaired because right now you don`t even know what was really wrong. Do you know for certain that it has been repaired properly?
Also because of the language barrier you were not able to figure out the repairman's competency with "chat-chat".

Wow,close one.

My cure - live where you don't use heat.

Wow,close one.

My cure - live where you don't use heat.

Scary thing is DT`s repairman may have hailed from a locale that didn`t need heat.

Wow glad you're ok.

Wow - close call!! Really glad to hear you're OK!

Question - where was your CO monitor? CO is heavy and will collect closer to the ground so if you're on the second floor or have it set up on the wall or ceiling it also won't be that effective.

Scary thing is DT`s repairman may have hailed from a locale that didn`t need heat.

Si, puedo arranglar cualquierra chunche usted tiene... :D

Holy crap. That's... frightening. :eek: Glad you're okay.

New fangled thin heat exchangers are crap!

Glad you're guys are safe.

This is a good lesson about why it's important to have a carbon monoxide detector, and know the signs of carbon monoxide exposure.

Wow....that was a close one.


Dogs are the best though!!!!

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7092/pb201305al0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Thank goodness for that fantastic dog! Best wishes for the health of you and your family.

Thank you guys so much! I love my dog more than anything in this entire world. I did have to give him an extra hug and cuddle today.

I think he and I are even now. I saved his life (got him from the pound) and now he's saved mine.

Woah. Close call. My buddy back in college found his grandparents and father dead in his grandparent's house of the same thing. Screwed him up good for a long time. Think I'll have a look at my heating equipment when I get home this morning.

We were told by a heating systems contractor that most commonly available CO detectors had a very high threshold because fire departments got tired of being called out for false alarms and made the UL change their standard for CO monitors to not alarm until they hit (fairly high threshold).
We ended up getting one of these (http://www.aeromedix.com/product-exec/parent_id/1/category_id/7/product_id/1342/nm/CO_Experts_Model_1070), which is a lot more sensitive. More expensive than I remember, but there's the whole peace of mind thing and all.

Wow, DT ... I guess you realize how lucky you really are. Thank god for your dog. I had a similar experience, but this time, it was because the pilot on the gas stove wasn't on. I didn't have a dog, so I must be pretty fortunate I didn't get CO poisoning as well. Glad to hear everything is okay.

I can't believe the reading of your CO monitor though. Is that normal?

Glad to hear you're OK. "Dog" was watching over you.
Random stuff like that can really make someone paranoid.

Glad to hear you're ok, DT!

Definitely get the gas company to check it out for ya's....I wouldn't trust those "maintenance guys" as far as I could throw them....I've had several bad experiences with them over the years....I've found that most of the time, their "training" has been severely lacking....

Hey DT - glad you are ok!

The gas company rep arrived at my house with all his machinery and lo' and behold, my house had 350 ppm of Carbon Monoxide. He told me that a few hours of that would be fatal.

Apparently, my CO detector only picks up at 400 ppm when sustained for 15 minutes. :eek:

Wow, I'd better check the specs on my CO detector! I'm glad you managed to survive this potentially fatal situation. Word to the wise ........ listen to Fido! :)

... Brad

Damn, glad you're okay, DT... Your dog must be much smarter than my little puggle. EIther that, or we've both grown accustomed to the CO in our house. I have to physically carry him outside every morning because he refuses to get out from under the covers.

Wow. I really think dogs are a blessing. I'm so glad you are OK.

Our dog started freaking out right before a small twister came through our neighborhood. He jumped on my chest and started wigging out looking at the window behind us. A few seconds later we were gathering the children and running for the closet in our bedroom.

Glad to hear you dodged that bullet!

Thank (insert deity of choice) we have a heat pump.

wow. That was close.

I think doggie should get a T-bone for that:)

Glad you're OK. Thank God for dogs. Now, go get him something special to chew on. He deserves it!

My dog threw up at the foot of our bed this morning at 5:41AM. It was awesome because it spared me from hitting the snooze on the alarm 15 consecutive times like normal, and so i ended up starting my ride about 30 minutes early and getting done about 30 minutes early. Also got to work thirty minutes earlier than normal.

My dog did all of this. True story.

Dude, Some people are just lucky. How'd you get it all? :)

Here, have some fresh bread...

Holy Crap! Glad to hear that everyone is ok...this could have been horrible.
I say give that dog one hell of a christmas this year!

And thanks for the info on the CO monitors....I had though about buying one or two for my house, but after reading that it doesn't alarm until 400ppm, I'm not so sure about those things now.

Dogs are man's best friend for a reason. Would a cat save your life like that? Glad you're ok DT.

And thanks for the info on the CO monitors....I had though about buying one or two for my house, but after reading that it doesn't alarm until 400ppm, I'm not so sure about those things now.

+1

I need to check mine.

Some relatives of mine were saved by their dog as well. The husband was woken by the dog who wouldn't stop yapping. He took the dog outside, then realized he felt so ill himself he needed to go to hospital. He called himself an ambulance, and at the hospital they immediately diagnosed CO poisoning - they then had to send a second ambulance to wake up his wife and bring her to hospital too.

Glad you are o.k.

Dogs are the best! Period. Not that I don't like cats...in fact.. I love animals in general.

Buy the best CO2 monitor you can find and stay on top of that as long as you live in that complex.

...Apparently, my CO detector only picks up at 400 ppm when sustained for 15 minutes. :eek:...

Thanks for that bit of info. Glad you're OK.

Dogs are man's best friend for a reason.

So the CO monitor only works a 400ppm and the rep said that a few hours of 350PPm would be fatal? Anybody else see a really nasty flaw here?

I'm checking my CO monitor at home tonight. I've waken to a few bad headaches lately but they go away when I get to work. Hmmm...

Was seriously thinking of this thread this morning. I was watching news while getting ready and saw a story that happened elsewhere in this state (Washington). Exact same scenario as DT, except the people weren't so lucky. Parents were out and kids were home alone I think (oldest was old enough to babysit) and parents came home to all 3 children dead. What sadness.


edit: Found story link.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_112807WAB_carbon_monoxide_deaths_LJ.48ff0e27.html

Was seriously thinking of this thread this morning. I was watching news while getting ready and saw a story that happened elsewhere in this state (Washington). Exact same scenario as DT, except the people weren't so lucky. Parents were out and kids were home alone I think (oldest was old enough to babysit) and parents came home to all 3 children dead. What sadness.


I saw that story, too. Wait and see what happens when it snows here in the lowlands and the power goes out for a week. You'll see 10 times as many of those stories; people using propane grills in their living room, or a charcoal grill in the garage (with the door shut.)


KT, you know my dog. Whatcha think... would she wake me and the girl up, or just eat some food and go back to sleep?

Wow, that is truly scary!

Glad everyone's ok.

I saw that story, too. Wait and see what happens when it snows here in the lowlands and the power goes out for a week. You'll see 10 times as many of those stories; people using propane grills in their living room, or a charcoal grill in the garage (with the door shut.)
We got the same things in FL after power outs from a hurricane or bad storm. Dumbasses would bring their grills into the house or garage because it was still raining or something and cook right in the house with them, etc...


KT, you know my dog. Whatcha think... would she wake me and the girl up, or just eat some food and go back to sleep?
I'm surprised Ascii let's you sleep at all at the best of times. She's usually running around like a mad woman every second....but in a good way. :) But I don't think she'd necessarily act any 'differently' if the were CO in the house. :D Not sure mine would either...they enjoy their sleep time (which is 23:40 a day) too much.

Wow,close one.

My cure - live where you don't use heat.

Way to go. :rolleyes:

Glad to hear you're ok, OP.

Thank you guys so much! I love my dog more than anything in this entire world. I did have to give him an extra hug and cuddle today.

I think he and I are even now. I saved his life (got him from the pound) and now he's saved mine.
Still, I think he deserves a steak for this stunt. At least give him a proper cheeseburger.

Dogs have a very acute sense for when things are not right. For years, if my wife or I feels sick, we let the dog check us out. If she lays down beside the person she is checking, it means they are sick. If she wants to play, go for a walk, or starts to pull the blankets off the bed it means they are fine and just need to shake off whatever they have. She has never been wrong.

No matter how bad you feel, the dog nurse does not regard hangovers to be a form of illness. Anyone trying to waste her time diagnosing a simple case of overindulgence can expect to be barked at. I think many illnesses give off subtle smells that animals and even humans can detect. My doggie now has cancer :( and she smells different than she used to.

my dog is too dumb to save a life.
He's smart enough not to save your life.

He's smart enough not to save your life.

:roflmao:

my dog is too dumb to save a life.

My dog is smart enough to save me and the girl, but she's also easily distracted. ASCII would be on her way from the fire in the kitchen to come wake us up, stumble across one of her toys and sit down to play with it until it was too late.

My dog is smart enough to save me and the girl, but she's also easily distracted. ASCII would be on her way from the fire in the kitchen to come wake us up, stumble across one of her toys and sit down to play with it until it was too late.

That sounds like Ascii. :beer: