A Night to Remember!

I half expected to end up in the ER the other night with Timmy, but I never expected that it would be for all 5 of us instead of for him! We had the (brilliant!) idea of having a fire in the fireplace (only the second all winter) last night before bed. Before we went to bed, we put the fire out, made sure there was no smoke and closed the damper. That was around 10:30pm. At 1am I woke up to the carbon monoxide detector going off! I roused Pete and we went out to check to see if it was ligit. After unsuccessfully trying to reset it and then a second detector going off, we decided it was indeed ligit and we should heed the warning. I expected we were being overly cautious, but you can't put a price tag on life, so we bundled the kids up, woke them up and brought them out to the car. Thankfully, it was 40 degrees out! Boy were they confused! Naomi kept saying "I want to go back to my bed!!!"

Pete called 911 and the emergency squad responded. Thankfully, the girls and I have been to the fire station with the library group and had been exposed to the firetrucks and firefighters in full garb in a non-threatening environment. We explained to the kids that there was smoke from the fireplace in the house and that the firefighters would get rid of it and then we'd be able to go back in the house and go back to bed....don't I wish!

Upon entering the house, the firefighters got a high carbon monoxide reading. They then called the ambulance "just as a precaution" to check our blood levels. Well, we all came back high...Pete and Olivia the highest. We were high enough to warrant oxygen and a trip to the ER, but I don't think we were high enough to be incredibly concerned. Thankfully, all three kids had been exposed to the O2 Sat machine and oxygen masks in a non-threatening environment with Timmy's recent doctors appts. All three kids handled everything beautifully! They were cooperative, never cried and just went along for the ride!

So anyway, as the firefighters opened our house up to fresh air and blew a whole house fan through it and retested it to make sure it was safe, we were all escorted into the ambulance. I was told to leave the keys somewhere where someone could pick up our van to bring us home, so I put them in the glove compartment. I helped get the kids transferred over to the ambulance while Pete retrieved necessary items from the house such as shoes and sippy cups for the kids! As he climbed in the ambulance he said, you didn't leave the van keys in the van did you? Um....yes I did...you didn't lock it did you?! Yup! So, now we were locked out of our van too! And we do not have an extra key, nor did we have time to wait for AAA to come unlock us.... We decided to deal with that later.

By this time it was 3:30 am! We ended up in Worcester because UMass Worcester hospital has a pediatric ER. They would be set up better to see us all. We were all hooked up to oxygen and transported to the ER. In the ER we all were transferred over to the Hopsital oxygen and all our blood levels were checked. They were shown to be decreasing, so that was good! Timmy was the only one that was 0 (he was in his own room with the door shut last night...that's the only reason I can think of!). Pete and the girls were in one room and Tim and I were in the next room. We were all left to rest (aka watch cartoons!) and stay on oxygen.

The doctors came in and examined us and by 5 told us we could go home! We made a call out to Joe (thank you SO much Joe!) and he picked us up around 6 or so. He graciously treated us to Dunkin Donuts which made everyone's day :-) And dropped us off at home to our newly aired out house and locked car!

We've been (attempting!) to sleep all day! Of course all 3 kids can't seem to nap at the same time! Pete and I have been taking shifts!

The highlight of the whole thing for the kids was they each got a stuffed animal in the ambulance! Olivia got a teddy bear, Naomi a Care Bears Monkey, and Timmy an elephant! Naomi has been walking around all day with it!

Everyone was wonderful through the whole ordeal! They were all efficient, organized, and calm. No one instilled panic and the EMTs and nurses were great with the kids!

So, that was our night to remember and I hope we don't have to experience that again! The doctors did say that though they weren't certain we would've been dead without the detector going off, it was a possibility! If not that we would have been pretty sick by morning! Carbon monoxide is an odorless, invisible gas and often kills people in their sleep because they go unconscious. Pete and I could have gone unconscious and the kids would not have known what to do. I certainly don't like to dwell on that! I prefer to thank God and Our Guardian angels!

Lessons learned:
-even a few burning embers can cause high levels of carbon monoxide
-carbon monoxide detectors are worth every. single. penny! And EVERYONE should have one!
-check your detectors to make sure the batteries are functioning and replace batteries every 6 months!
-oxygen is the best antidote for carbon monoxide...had we been left on room air, it would have taken 5 hours to "detox"...with oxygen it took about 90 minutes!
-bringing children to meet and greet days a the fire station is a GREAT idea! It keeps children calm if/when they meet up with them in the middle of the night!
-the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are nausea, headache, confusion, chest pain, loss of consciousness... thankfully none of us had any symptoms!
-further treatment for this would have been med flighting to a hyperbarric chamber...of which MA only has a few in the state...so glad that was not the case!

Anyway, thank you to everyone for their concern! Thank you to Our Merciful Heavenly Father and our wonderful Guardian Angels! Thank you to everyone that made our experience smooth! Thank you Joe! And thank you carbon monoxide detectors...of which we will ALWAYS have one and I will ALWAYS replace the batteries of!