Carbon Monoxide poisoning sux...

(I feel a long, rambling thread coming on)
Great... I just found out what was happening... and it sucks...
As many of you know, I just moved outta my mom's house and got my own place... Now this place didn't have any heat... NC winters' suck... so I borrowed my mom's kerosene heater, and bought an electric heater... The electric heater is in the bedroom, and the kerosene either the living room or kitchen... I don't usually have a problem with either heater, but if it gets really cold, I move the kerosene heater into the living room and use the ceiling fan to distribute the heat around the house (it's usually in the kitchen to keep the pipes from freezing)... Now, with enough kerosene I have no problems... but the other night the heater ran out in mid-night (not at midnight, but sometime while I was sleeping)... and the wick continued to burn and make the house all sooty...

I woke up Sun morn with a massive headache and hurting very badly (almost paralyzed from the pain). I was sick on my stomach and felt very tired...
I originally thought I had slept wrong or something... I left the house at a/b 10, and was away until a/b 2... I slowly seemed to get better... I took some meds to lessen the pain... I went back to the house a/b 2 and as I walked in the house, I immediately got a headache... I noticed that my vision was a little blurry and that I was a bit dizzy throughout the day... I assumed it was from sitting right in front of my 21" monitor for hours... I left the house again and was gone most of the night...
When I returned to the house, I noticed the horrible smell and soot in the air... it made me pure sick... I still went to bed...

I got to work today, and started thinking a/b it, and looked up kerosene poisoning, and found out I'm actually suffering from inhaling CO all night...
It sucks... I've gotta figure out another way to heat the house (especially before the baby comes) and I have no money... but that heater has made me some kinda sick...
http://images.obesityhelp.com/_shared/images/smiley/msn/barf.gif

Yeah, carboxy hemoglobin shuts down your entire body. The protein can't distinguish between O2 and CO, and binds both just as effectively. CO is odorless, however. so that smell must have been something else. Glad youre okay though! That shit is dangerous!! (*breaks into Michael Jackson's song...Daaanger-ussssssssss! yeee hee!)

Yeah, it's really draining on me... and the house still reeks, so I don't even think I'm really beginning to detox yet

edit: and yeah, I'm not smelling the CO... just the soot left behind from the burnt wick... but the CO is what's hurting me...

Ouch my friend, Thats horrable.

I've been nauseous all fuckin' day...

Yeah, carboxy hemoglobin shuts down your entire body. The protein can't distinguish between O2 and CO, and binds both just as effectively. CO is odorless, however. so that smell must have been something else. Glad youre okay though! That shit is dangerous!! (*breaks into Michael Jackson's song...Daaanger-ussssssssss! yeee hee!)


hehe, someone else is in biochem :grinyes:

Time to install a carbon monoxide detector ;). We got ours for free from like the firedepartment maybe, I forget.

Ha ha, biology FTL. Actually, I like it just fine, my general Bio class is a good GPA booster :).

hehe, someone else is in biochem :grinyes:

Lmao. Can ya' tell?

Seriously though. That course was so lengthy.... the final basically crammed 1000 pages in 2 months. And the final was comprehensive. :screwy:

Your lucky you didn't die.

Lmao. Can ya' tell?

Seriously though. That course was so lengthy.... the final basically crammed 1000 pages in 2 months. And the final was comprehensive. :screwy:

my final is tommorrow

there is so much on it, all comprehensive

I'm feeling much better today... I still feel like crap... apparently I got hit with a virus at the same time...
but I've stopped running the kerosene heater... I'm a/b to get a propane heater that will vent through my chimney (old skool farmhouse FTW)

Somewhat similar thing happened to me about 3 months ago, except with paint. I used my garage to paint a couple items and went to bed. I wanted to leave it open to let all the fumes out but since I live in a pretty bad neighborhood I kept it closed. I woke up around 2am not being able to breath barely at all and having the whole house filled with paint thiner and paint. I was sick for days and comming back home days later would only make it worse because the shit still would be floating in the air when I would return. Not exactly what type of poisoning it was but it had the same symptoms you described(extremely painfull headaches, blurry vision, etc.)

Somewhat similar thing happened to me about 3 months ago, except with paint. I used my garage to paint a couple items and went to bed. I wanted to leave it open to let all the fumes out but since I live in a pretty bad neighborhood I kept it closed. I woke up around 2am not being able to breath barely at all and having the whole house filled with paint thiner and paint. I was sick for days and comming back home days later would only make it worse because the shit still would be floating in the air when I would return. Not exactly what type of poisoning it was but it had the same symptoms you described(extremely painfull headaches, blurry vision, etc.)

Hydrocarbon poisoning...
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec24/ch297/ch297f.html

You can get one of those Heat Dish things from home depot. I had one in AK just incase ...talk about extreme cold..-80 n crap. They are like 40 - 50 bucks but god damn do they head a house up preatty quick and it's an all electrical item. No dangerous gases and fumes.

That happened to me recently at my wifes Grandmas house it was leaking in the damn attic.I am surprised we werent all dead.My uncle died of CO poisoning in his car sucks eh.:shakehead

yeah, the co poisoning sux major ass (I'm better now)... I've stopped using the kerosene heater, and am just using the electrical one (and to all those who say they run up the bills, $70 electric bill last month...)

I've got a vented propane heater that should be in the house within the next week...

Why doesnt your appartment have heat?

I'm sry... I forgot to state, it's an old farmhouse...

I had to be wired for electricity... the wiring's not grounded and there aren't many outlets... much less all that fancy central heat/air... this house has been around for I'd say at least 60+ years... I'm thinking closer to the 100yr mark