A Drumheller woman feels lucky to be alive, and all it took was a new furnace in her house.
Candice Ryan is working to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining your home and the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. This follows more than a year and half of chasing mysterious health problems.
In hindsight, it appears there were dozens of signs that something larger was at work.
A few days before Christmas, her furnace quit working.
“I literally went on Facebook and said I need an angel,” she said.
That angel came in the form of her friends Audrey and Darcy Hems, who own Hems Heating. Darcy came over to find an unrepairable furnace. The day before Christmas Eve they were making sure there was heat for Ryan, her 10 year old daughter and pets. They were a godsend for the family who were facing a cold Christmas.
When the old furnace was taken out, Darcy showed Candice what she believes was the root of her health problems.
“He showed me three cracks in my furnace, he said ‘you guys have been being poisoned by carbon monoxide, at least for the last year!’” said Ryan.
This simple statement, shed light on months of suffering for the family.
Ryan has lived in the home for about three years, but the symptoms have become more pronounced over the last year and a half.
“The doctor had no idea what was going on, I went for stress tesst and I had CT scans done on my chest because I was having heart attack symptoms, but they would get better when I would get to the hospital because I got out of the house,” Ryan explains.
There were times when she was not able to pull herself out of bed. She says, when pulling out a list of typical symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, she indicates experiencing everything on the list.
"Everything except seizures” she said.
“I was literally going insane, because all these doctors were telling me I am fine."
Her daughter also experienced a number of symptoms. At times she was lethargic and other times confused and agitated. In hindsight all these things began to make sense. One of Ryan's Chihuahuas and one cat died mysteriously, and her current dog had internal bleeding. After hundreds of dollars in vet bills, there was still no indication of what happened to the animals.
Today the family is on the road back to health since the repair. Their energy levels have returned, the pets have healed and their life seems back on track. Ryan triumphantly tells The Mail that she and her daughter played the Just Dance video game for an hour a few days before, a feat that would have been impossible for both less than a month ago.
She explains with short-term exposure to carbon monoxide the cure can be as simple as getting into fresh air. With long term exposure there is a risk of more medical issues. There could be neurological damage as well as organ damage. This will have to be assessed as they work their way back to health.
“There has been so much damage done, but we’ll have to keep looking at it. It is emotionally damaging too,” said Ryan.
She can’t emphasize enough how important it is to keep appliances in good working order. She reiterates Darcy Hem’s advice: “anytime there might even remotely be a problem, get someone in, pay the $250 to have it cleaned every year, and get carbon monoxide detectors.”
Fire Chief Bill Bachynski says the Drumheller Fire Department receives a number of calls every year for carbon monoxide and he reinforces the importance of having carbon monoxide detectors.
AltaGas Utilities provides free 24-hour emergency services. Mild symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be as slight as a headache while more severe symptoms can be nausea, vomiting, confusion and even death.
If carbon monoxide is present, evacuate the home of people and pets and call the AltaGas emergency line at 1-866-222-2068 or 911.
