close call

One of the new traditions we started this year was a New Year's weekend at our cabin.  We invited my parents and Luke and Annalyse to come to the Northwoods to spend the holiday with us snowshoeing, playing games, sledding, and eating good food to bring in the new year.  

Everyone arrived at around dinnertime on Friday evening.  Steve and Patti came to join us, too and we had delicious lasagna, caesar salad, and garlic bread.  We got the kids settled into bed (not the easiest feat with no bedroom doors and a houseful of adults...)  and after much laughing and visiting, we all went to bed, too.  

The moment my head hit the pillow, Miles started howling upstairs in his crate.  I went up there to try to get him to quiet, but he was really worked up.  I took him out and tried to get him to snuggle in with me on the couch.  He continued to pant and act upset, so after an hour or so of trying to calm him, I put him back in his kennel and crawled into the recliner right next to him, to see if sleeping by him would help.  He continued to whine and cry and pant, but eventually after midnight he settled a bit.  

About the time that Miles settled, Nolan woke up.  He was crying and said he didn't feel good.  His nose was all stuffed up and he was coughing.  I went to get him some milk and on the way back to him room I got incredibly nauseous, overheated, and faint.  I shoved the milk at him, took off my pajamas, and collapsed into the recliner, thinking that I must've had food poisoning or something.  I couldn't move and I just felt terrible.  I must've fell back asleep, because a few hours passed and Nolan woke up a second time not feeling well.  I still was feeling terrible, but got him tucked back into bed and he slept for the rest of the night.

When I woke up the next morning, I had the most monstrous headache.  One of the worst I've ever had in my life.  I felt nauseous and just generally terrible.  Once everybody else came upstairs for breakfast, we realized ALL of us had massive headaches.  It was so strange, because none of us drank very much the night before or could figure out any reason why would should all be feeling so terrible.  The headaches continued to grow, and pretty soon Annalyse's was so bad that she was outside vomiting.  

Some of us decided to press on, and get outside for some snowshoeing, thinking that maybe the fresh air would help.  Lo and behold, within a few minutes of being outside our headaches nearly 100% disappeared.  It was so strange.  I came back inside with Livi, and within a few minutes my head was hurting more than ever, and I went to lay down to see if it was just from being overtired.  I couldn't sleep because of how bad my headache was, so I got up to get ready for our sleigh ride. 

Again, once we got outside, everyone felt better.  At this point, we were feeling pretty skeptical about how all of us would have massive headaches that arrived at the exact same time.   It had to be environmental.  We realized that the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.  Though it seemed far fetched, we picked up a brand new CO detector to bring out to the cabin with us.  We plugged it in and within an hour it went off, alerting us that the gas level was extremely dangerous.  We realized that the propane fridge, that hadn't been cooling well all weekend, was clogged and was venting the poisonous gas back into the cabin.  We turned off the valve to the fridge, opened the windows for a bit, and reset the alarm to make sure the danger was gone.  Over the course of the next few hours, the CO level dropped back to zero.  We knew that it was safe to stay the night at that point, but I was still very upset.

When I think of how close I was to losing my entire family, it is absolutely terrifying.  In hindsight, I think that Miles was so upset because he could sense that we were in danger.  I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that things didn't turn out much, much differently this weekend.  Praise the Lord that we are all safe and healthy!  

Nolan's first time on his new snowshoes!