You NEED to buy a CO2 alarm!

For the past 10 days or so our family had been dealing with the flu, or so we thought. Four out of the five of us had vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, headaches, fatigue, and other "flu-like" symptoms. It didn't seem to go away and our littlest children seemed to be affected the most. I was basically taking life one day at a time, one hour at a time, one vomiting spell at a time because there was nothing else I could do.

Well, yesterday morning at 4:30 am Tom and I both sat straight up in bed and looked right at each other. There was a high pitched screeching beeping sound coming from our kitchen. We didn't know what it was at first but quickly realized that our CO2 monitor was going off. It was VERY loud and so we quickly removed it from the wall and brought it into our bedroom. (We were hoping it wouldn't wake the kids.)

When we looked at the number on the monitor we realized something was wrong. It always blinked "0" but at that moment it was in the 60-70 range. We weren't sure what exactly that meant, so we got out the manual and started to read it very closely. The first thing it said was to get outside and call "911." We opened all the windows and called 911. They told us to get the kids out of the house and wait for the fire department to arrive.

Well, anyone with little children knows that waking 3 babies up from their sleep and getting them out of the house wouldn't be an easy task. So, first I asked Tom to start the van and I called my mom. She said we could definitely come stay there until things were figured out. I quietly scooped the kids up out of their beds and told them (with a smile of coarse) that we were going to go for a little ride in the van. They looked confused but were calm and happy to be "going bye bye!"

The fire department sent two fire trucks, a ton of fire fighters and a few police cars. We had our own parade in our front yard and the kids thought it was great. They determined that it was our coal stove that was producing CO2 and that we needed to leave the house unoccupied and open for the remainder of the day. Tom opened all the windows and we left for my mom's house where we spent the day.

I am just SO thankful that we had the alarm and that it was working properly! We could have had a much more severe or deadly experience and I am just thanking God for keeping us safe!

Since yesterday we have turned off the coal stove until we can figure out how to make it run properly and are enjoying lots of fresh air! I cannot imagine what would have happened if that alarm had not woken us up. I am counting my blessings!!!

So, I am begging you to go out tomorrow and buy a CO2 alarm. They don't cost much and could save your lives! (This is the one we have.) We never would have expected this to happen to us, but it did and we were grateful for the protection!

We thought we had the flu, and we still might have, but the symptoms of CO2 poisoning are identical to what we were suffering with. So I'm just trying to educate all of you out there and just giving you a warning that it could happen to anyone!