Methane Poisoning In The Home Symptoms - Part 1

I had a new furnace put in years ago. I posted about getting an energy audit in 2012 and they felt that there was a crack in my furnace so they replaced the furnace at that time. Here is a link to the post at that time, so the furnace was put in the week or so I made this post. 

That post was written in March of 2012. In December of 2012, I had this problem with the line they put in to drain the pump for the furnace freezing. I show how cold the house got and how I ended up having to dump a bucket every day to keep the furnace working. Here is the link to that post. 

They guy that was over the work crew that put my furnace is was new to the job. I was his first house. The state people were at the house for the inspection day, but not for the install of the furnace. I think that is where my problems started. He was new and didn't probably know any better in what he did, but it has been hell for me for the past 7 years! 

We were both trying to figure out what to do to keep the line from freezing. I even mention in the December post that we were going to try foam in the area to keep the line from freezing. Problem was, he dropped the foam into the line and I didn't know it and also had no idea it was completely blocked. 

He ended up coming back a few more times, and not only did the line freeze in the winter every year, it molded in the spring and fall when the furnace would go on once and then not for a few weeks when it would get warmer and I would find black mold in the pump box and the water line going up into the attic. That is a story for another day. 

They came back and put some tubing down into the vent attached to the end of the drain tube to capture the heat from the sewer line and for the most part, this kept the line from freezing as they also put some insulation around the tube and then buried it in the insulation in the attic yet the tip continued to freeze on the coldest days of the year causing me to have to babysit the pump on those coldest days. 

Over those 7 years, I got more and more headaches. I got more tired and dizzy. I was more confused, and didn't feel better until about 3 in the afternoon which has always been my errand running time due to picking children up from school around then, so I have always been in the practice of leaving the house around three to run errands. 

It wasn't until I lived at my dad's home for 1 1/2 to 2 months this summer that I realized I had plenty of energy and stamina from early morning until late at night as long as I wasn't at home. As soon as I returned home, I had a headache all night while sleeping so my head would wake me through the night. I had massive amounts of heart palpations while trying to get to sleep at night. I had such dry skin that I shocked myself one day going to the store and looked at my legs in my capris and my legs were completely white with dead skin. I was so embarrassed that I went to my car and applied lotion in the car. I put oil on my legs daily and usually more than once. I didn't have that much of a problem at my dad's house. 

In the past few years, I have fallen down a few times being dizzy and have many posts about that as well as being tired, not thinking clearly etc. All of things are well documented on my blog in the past many years. Lists of symptoms for Methane Poisoning in humans are:

dizziness
clumsy
dry skin and dehydration
heart palpations
headaches
confusion / brain fog
forgetful
nausea / vomiting

A few months back I went to the plumbing store and told the worker that I thought my toilet was leaking and I could hear "gurgles" and "glug glug" sounds in the basement toilet and no one uses that toilet. He told me that if I was hearing that, it wasn't a leak in the toilet, it was that there is methane gas leaking into my house from the lowest drain in the house and that I probably have a blockage in my sewer vent.

I was in the middle of stuff with my father and asked if the methane gas in the house was a "problem" as no one used the basement. He laughed at my comment but I was so worried about getting back to my ailing father, that I didn't think about it much as there wasn't a thing I could do about it then. But, I immediately KNEW what was blocking my sewer vent because we had so many problems with the furnace and I knew that they put stuff in the vent to try and fix that problem but I didn't know that it would poison me! 

I get back from helping my dad this summer and I feel absolutely horrible when I get home. Headaches strait for days. I then thought about all the times I left the house and did fine traveling to NY and DC last summer, working in the yard for days, living at my dad's and all those times, I was fine with the long days and getting stuff done. 

I climb on the roof and pull out the tubing that he had stuck on the end of the furnace pump drain tube they inserted into the sewer vent. I look in the vent and see a yellowish foam about halfway down the pipe about the level of my bedroom. I KNOW that I do have a methane gas problem and why at this point. I called the health department, the city offices for sewer and the company that installed the furnace. The first two told me they didn't think they had a way to detect methane gas in the home, but I left messages for the specialist over those areas and never got a return call from the health department or the city sewer workers. I did get information from the install place and they said that they had a complete turn over from everyone in the furnace install department and NONE of them worked there still. They did tell me that my "file" did say that they installed some foam in the vent to try and keep the line from freezing." Other than that, they said they couldn't help me as none of the people who worked on my home were still there. 

I call a friend and ask him to bring over an electrical snake with a hook on the end hoping we can snag the sponge and pull it up. He sticks the snake down and lets it drop. It hits the sponge, bounces up a little and then he pushes it down and when I look down the vent after that, the sponge is now so far down, I can't see it at all. 

I hope that this has taken car of the problem. I am in the basement later and hear the gurgle sound but now it sounds a lower tone but still the same sound so I know that the problem has moved due to the deeper tone but that I still have a problem. 

One funny thing that happened, I can laugh now, but when I was putting my arm into the sewer vent to pull that tubing out, I got my arm stuck in the sewer vent and I can't move and am on the roof and it is getting dark. I had a panic moment seeing myself screaming for help and the fire department having to come and grease up my arm or cut the vent pipe off to get my arm out. I took a few deep breathes, used my other hand to pinch my arm skin and release it as there was moisture in the vent, my arm made a suction. It was only for a second, but I laughed at myself after getting free. 

To be continued.... 

Have a blessed day!