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Guys, I want to give you a major Thank you for helping me understand this situation. Seriously, thank you!

I'm going to get another Repairman out to the house this week to check to make sure everything is actually GTG/safe. Relating to the blood oxygen level, I do recall that the Doctor in the ER had mentioned that our levels were something like ".7" and .9" respectively, though I'm not 100% certain whose number was whose, and if it was a .07,.7, or something else. If I am recalling correctly, he mentioned that "normal" would have been 1.5 or something like that. Does that sound about right? I wonder if the bill they will be sending us has more information on it.

At any rate, I'm glad I was able to learn a lot from this in addition to still being in good health. FWIW, I'm not sure what type of pilot system our oven has. I do know that the previous home we lived in had an over with a pilot light in it and it was of the type that would shut the gas off if the pilot ever went out.

Thanks for the well wishes all! I picked up two new detectors (DC models with battery backups), and the family slept easier last night. My dogs actually were acting funny all night, the night before this happened. They wanted to be let outside constantly (we don't have a doggy door), and when an 9 year old 80lb Black Lab tells you he wants out you listen. My wife and I honestly think this was their way of trying to tell us that they didn't feel good, and that something was wrong, as it continued through the next day and they were acting much more lethargic than normal.

Jim: That has really been bothering me too. As far as I am aware, the oven was not on the entire day. Not even the stove top. We did use the oven for around 1 1/2 hours the night before in order to cook dinner, but that was it. I'm wondering if during that time it was leaking bad enough to have created the Carbon Monoxide and sort of "trapped it" in the oven/kitchen area, and perhaps it was leaking out of it during following hours? I'm not sure. I have the piece of paper that the service tech from Atmos left, and all it says is " Type of Appliance: Range", "Your gas service was turned off due to an unsafe condition, Carbon Monoxide hazard", "Your gas service to appliance was turned off at appliance valve", and "Due to unsafe condition, gas leak at appliance". The paper is a triplicate form type where you fill in the bubbles in order to fill it out. Here's what confuses me about the form:



As you can see in the picture, it shows which options are filled out. Its kind of hard to see, but you can tell that in the right hand column instead of "Carbon Monoxide Hazard" it shows (barely) that "Gas leak at appliance" is selected. I'm confused as to why the tech filled out "Carbon Monoxide Hazard" in the left column, but "Gas leak at appliance" on the right. The two don't jive with each other in my estimation, unless there is something that I'm failing to see (which is entirely possible, as I didn't notice the inconsistencies until now). A thought did just occur though - perhaps the second column is filled out like that because there were two existing conditions? That would make more sense. So the only possibilities I can think of right now are: The aforementioned use of the oven the night before creating the hazard, the gas leak itself making us sick and not the CO, or the oven just malfunctioning worse than I understand. The landlord did send a repair man out yesterday to check the oven, and he stated that the oven was indeed leaking a lot of gas. He mentioned the oven burner needed to be adjusted to allow for the proper mix of Oxygen to Gas, and that the ratio was previously off and was letting too much gas and not enough air in. He said he couldn't find anything else wrong with it, and with landlord approval, he fixed that issue. We haven't used it since then. So that would seem to rule out the oven completely malfunctioning by (IE: turning itself on or something similar to create the CO gas), granted I'm not 100% certain how ovens work, though I sincerely hope a repair man would. I'm just concerned that the problem was actually fixed - because if we haven't completely and correctly identified the problem, it makes me think that the likely hood of it being properly resolved is much smaller than if it was properly diagnosed. I was still feeling ill yesterday throughout the day, but so far today I'm feeling just about 100% fine, and considering that the detectors (one in the family room where I use my PC, and one in the Bedroom) haven't picked anything up at all , everything seems to be A-OK. I must admit I'm still at little uncomfortable with the situation though. Any thoughts?

Or, alternatively, how Facebook saved my life.

Yesterday my family had a really close call with Carbon Monoxide. I was working from home yesterday and started feeling really ill around 12:45PM and figured I just needed to eat, so I ate, and alas still felt sick. I figured I was just coming down with something, and continued to work. During a break, I casually posted on my Facebook account that I wasn't feeling well with a brief outline of my symptoms. About 4:45, with my condition unchanged, I was pretty miserable. One of my buddies immediately called me and said "Get out of your house NOW, it sounds like you have carbon monoxide poisoning!". I was shocked and at first didn't put much weight into his claim, but still got my butt (and the dog's butts) out of the house as fast as possible. I was sitting in my computer chair when he called me up, and I think I literally got up so fast that It was spinning it circles!

So, once outside he says to stay out there and call the gas company, or 911 ASAP. I opted for the first choice because I didn't think I felt "That" bad, and was still skeptical. So I called up Atmos Energy and told them what as happening, and they told me to stay outside of the house and that they were sending a technician over quickly. About an hour later he finally showed up (good thing I have a nice backyard to hang out in! ). I wasn't feeling much better when he finally arrived, but the fresh air was seeming to help. The Tech went inside, and checked my oven, and found that it was leaking and had a huge issue with Carbon Monoxide! He said that his detector hit 34ppm and he immediately turned off the gas to the stove. 35ppm is enough to make you sick over 6-8 hours - pretty much exactly the same amount of time I had been in my home when I first started to get sick around 12:45. The tech then ran some more tests, opened some windows, and said "Yeah, that was a pretty bad leak for any type of appliance". He made sure the levels in the house were safe and said I could go back inside (after it aired out). I still opted to wait outside as much as possible until my wife got home from work, and she took me straight to the ER to get checked out. She had also been feeling the effects too, and had a migraine from it, but since I had been spending much more time in the house than her, I was worse off. The ER took blood to check our blood oxygen level and cleared us, saying that our levels were off a bit but within a safe level. I'd been out of the gas and in fresh air long enough that my body had done a great job of getting me healthy again. To be honest, if I'd just ignored my buddies advice, I would have been dead within a few hours. My wife would have come home to find myself and the dogs gone... that's an extremely sobering thought. We got really lucky yesterday! My Buddies intuition saved our lives!

We're renting the house we are in right now, having just moved here from another part of the state. There was a Detector present, but, it didn't detect a thing - the batteries were fine, but for some reason it's just DOA. Thankfully everything turned out ok... the landlord has been very professional, understanding and has been working with is to make sure everything is safe and fixed up (even going as far as to take care of the ER bills). So the moral of the story?

Have more than 1 Carbon Monoxide Detector in your home! If you have a leak, and one of the detectors dinks out on you, at least you'll have a backup to let you know you need to get out! I know I'll be buying at least two detectors to place in the areas of the home we spend the most time in, in addition to the replacement our landlord is providing.

Secondly, don't take any chances! Had I chosen to blow off my friends urging, I wouldn't be here typing this message. And all because he saw my Facebook post, describing my symptoms. I don't like FB that much, but in this case it was the catalyst for a life saving activity!

Stay safe folks! Make sure you check your detectors regularly as it can save you and your families lives!