Behind the Awkwardness: Up In The Air
March 8th, 2010
‘We all had carbon monoxide poisoning and over the next two days spent a total of 6 hours in the hyperbaric chamber at the hospital. I’m in the foreground, then my husband, then his parents. Someone suggested that it looks like a low-budget star trek convention.”
(submitted by Glenna Jo)
Tags: accidents
WOW! You’re all lucky to be alive. Carbon Monoxide has no smell. Weird Al Yankovik lost both his parents from carbon monoxide poisoning. Tis is certainly one unique photo!
Thank God you’re all OK. The phrase Awkward Last-Living Photo would have been a lot less funny.. o_O And yes, before I read the backstory, my first impression was “family attends Space Camp together?”. Good luck to you all.
they look like radiation suits
Great website. Thank you!
Hyperbaric? Looks more like Hyper-barbaric!
That’s a hilarious picture. Reminds me of a bunch of buzz lightyears.
Good to see you and your family is ok. Carbon Monoxide is extremely dangerous and can really be a silent killer.
Thank you for sharing your story, Glenna! Because you posted this, I feel certain that many readers to this site will be paying a bit more attention to their HVAC systems.
Yes, the picture is a little goofy looking, but most people I know would see the awkwardness in being confined with the in-laws!
Did anyone notice how much the in-laws look like the preserved heads on Futurama? Especially mom-in-law? Actually, m-i-l looks like she’s getting her hair done and she’s under the special dryer that does your makeup at the same time.
Glenna, your actions helped save lives and made others aware of how precious life really is. I commend you for sharing the photo, but more because you answered our questions and did it with a big grin. Your husband is lucky to have you as his wife.
I kinda like it.
I hope you all are better though.
Wow! What a story. Glad you all made it through okay — talk about death knockin’ at your door!
Reminiscent of Krang from TMNT.
Wow, I hope it wasn’t either your home or your in-laws, that would be really awkward; “gee Mom, remember when your cheap-o furnace repair nearly killed us all?”
Glad you’re okay and have such a solid sense of humor about it.
Glenna Jo, Glad you are okay, but if you had all put on red shirts…..just saying, if you were going for the Star Trek look…. Thanks for sharing the picture and the story.
Hahahahaha, bless ya! Although I’m so glad you were all ok, it could have been really bad.
It kind of bugs me that they managed to get this picture! Hyperbaric chambers with oxygen + batteries, cell phones, lighters, two sticks rubbed together can equal = BOOM. That’s why there’s the fire extinguisher right by their heads.
Of course they have rules about that. We took the picture and put the camera away prior to sealing the door for the treatment. There are absolutely no cameras, cell phones etc. allowed in the chamber during the treatment.
Thank you for clarifying that!
like a fire extinguisher would do ANY good in a Hyperbaric Chamber!! lol
Ooompa, oompa, oompa-de-do. I’ve got another puzzle for you…
Thankx for the background story and being able to laugh about it. How bizarre! You poor things! The only thing worse is the long scientific explanations some will write in to ‘enlighten’ us lesser souls lol
Who took the picture?
”Hi,everybody…I’m the hospital photographer. How about some lovely pictures for your Christmas cards”. That’s it all smile & hold your breath (oops,what WAS I saying)”
It was one of the hospital nurses that snapped the photo. However, since the incedent happened just two weeks before Christmas, we actually did this photo on a Christmas card.
That is beyond awesome. I wish I had been on that mailing list.
I like the optimism of having a water bottle handy while your head is sealed inside a plastic bag. I would have had to run the straw into the wall of the bag 5 times before I realized, “it’s not gonna happen.”
lol !!!
Hours spent in a steel tube…with the in-laws? I will be testing the batteries in the two carbon monoxide detectors at home as soon as I leave work.
I don’t even have a CO detector right now. Oh man, I’m getting one right away.
This is Ground Control to Major Awkward.
Vern’s plan to do away with the entire family and inherit the fortune fails miserably. And they always kept a watchful eye on him after that, due to his choice to sleep in a tent on that one cold winter night.
The Far Side kind of funny.
GREAT!!!
Thanks so much everyone for your questions & comments. My in-laws are actually wonderful people. My husband and I live in their basement and the carbon monoxide was leaking from a faulty, 32 year old furnace which is how all of us were poisoned at the same time. If you would like to read the whole story check out
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_766ea828-8e2f-503b-9fd5-72e15b9d9489.html
You are a hero Glenna! Thank God you and your family made it out ok!
Thanks for the article. I just sent it to my husband at work. A couple of years ago the furnace guy said our furnace was leaking carbon monoxide. He gave it a quick fix, and we put up a monitor. No one got sick though, so we didn’t see a doctor about it. It still concerns me, because I don’t know if we need to have it checked again. I sure appreciate your posting this. It’s a great head’s up.
That is so totally not-the-point here.
Perhaps if you had read the article…
Glenna – so glad you all are safe! My greataunt got CO poisoning years and years ago and has been mentally affected ever since.
You are a hero!
Glenna, I read your story, and you are a STAR! This should entitle you to use whatever size casserole dish you want to for every holiday from now until doomsday – you saved everyone’s life!!!
What a minute …
While nearly tragic for her, this situation isn’t at all awkward for Glenna Jo. She’s the hero, and heroes, by their very nature, are graceful (i.e., not awkward).
The folks for whom this was, is now and forever shall be royally awkward is the in-laws! It was their house, their basement, their furnace.
After all this, how can Ma or Pa every getting the upper hand at Thanksgiving ever again?
Scary stuff! I’m so glad your family is OK! But I have to know… after the hyperbaric treatments, did you walk out of there and say, “Oh, this is so worth paying big bucks to have one of these in my house!” Or was Michael Jackson full of crap about them?
I think the story’s just a cover. I thinks it’s some sort of tequilla infusion device. The two guys look like their holding cans of whipped cream. The whole thing screams par-tay!
The worst part was entering those numbers every 108 minutes.
FTW!
Nothing brings a family together like a little CO poisioning! This is a four star awkward winner- the situation is awkward, being in the situation with your in laws is awkward, posing for a family photo is awkward, and the fact that at ANY family gathering from now until the end of time on EITHER side of the family this situation (insert snide remark) can rear it’s head is awkward. My apologies, Glenda Jo, but I wiped tears from my eyes as I looked at this.
Warning Will Robinson! Warning!
You’re so right. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what they look like, and now it’s hilarious.
It’s a good thing they’re OK, and it makes sense that they’d want a picture taken. They’re probably all delighted that they’re still alive.
too funny!!
What could be more awkward (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) than being in this unfortunate situation and still posing for a family photo? Here’s to you and your family. May all your occasions be less awkward than this one.
Here, here!
Glenna Jo, you look great, your husband looks like he’s feeling real sick, your FIL looks ticked off, and your MIL looks like she’s having the time of her life!
It does look like you are in one of those NASA training aircraft, and you’re about to be floating about the cabin in simulated zero gravity.
Speechless … the picture, the back story … the untold story of how an entire family just so happened to get carbon monoxide poisoning at the same time … what we do know of the hours spent locked IN A SEALED STEEL TUBE with the in-laws — that is family awkwardness on a truly Olympic scale.
Does this Web site award medals? If so, Glenna Jo has earned one.
AGREED! I’m imagining myself as Glenna Jo…and I would totally have been giggling at the awkwardness of hours in said steel tube with in-laws…with bags over our heads. Forget giggling, I would have belly laughed most of the time.
Still … there appear to be some benefits.
Hyperbaric chambers apparently come fitted out with cupholders, a cooling fan and a fire extinguisher.
(Seriously, I guess they must have had a malfunctioning furnace or space heater? Would that give an entire family CO poisoning at the same time?)
I agree as well. Minimally, she deserves an AFP book!
Haha this is simply the BEST!
Looks like the sponge bob squirrel sandy!
YES!
ummm…after the explanation, not so funny. i’d have left caption out. then it would have made me giggle. just because it DOES look like a cheapo star trek convention.
Or any sci-fi movie where the grunts have to get transported – the new Star Trek, but also Aliens, Starship Troopers, and more. This is way better, though!
They really cut NASA’s budget.
LMAOOOOOOOOOOO
LOL! Imagine the family stories shared during each holiday… “Remember when we all got carbon monoxide poisoning? Good times…”
Worse, they had gone out for “All-you-can-eat” chili the night before…
(shudders…)
(Glad ur all ok!)
OM…G I can’t breath I am laughing so hard!!!
Good times, indeed!
Oh honey. I have to agree. If I didn’t know why you were there, I would laugh my tush off. OK, I did giggle before I read it. So glad you alive to show this silly looking picture!!
I am glad for the backstory, because I would have felt AWFUL laughing at this and then hearing it. What a crazy thing to happen, and what a crazy-looking treatment. Good for you and your family for having a little sense of humour about it.
That’s scary! How does that hyperbaric chamber work to get out the carbon monoxide? What were your symptoms? How did this happen? How horrible!
Lower exerted atmosperic pressure = less disolved gas in a liquid. As the overall atmosperic pressure drops in the chamber and around each person, the concentration of disolved gas in the blood steam descreases (including the oxygen). That explains the enriched (above 19%) oxygen hoods to increase the blood oxygen levels lost due to all gasses boiling out of the blood. It is the oposite concept from when they treat “the bends” victims by increasing pressure to allow the gasses to rapidly disolve back into the blood before non recoverable hemmorage and embolysims.
Yah. That’s what I would have said.
; )
“non recoverable hemorrhage and embolisms” – good times…
OMG..that was hilarious Diver Dan….I needed a laugh..thanks.
Correction Quickie –
A HYPObaric chamber reduces pressure and is used for pilot training. A HYPERbaric chamber is based on increased pressure. Thus, there is no “lower exerted atmospheric pressure” as you suggest. Gases do not boil out of the blood.
It is the same device and gas laws as are used to treat decompression sickness (the bends).
In the specific case of CO poisoning, there are two things that the physician is trying to accomplish. One, because they are using INCREASED pressure in conjunction with breathing 100% oxygen – the oxygen dissolves directly into the plasma (you can only carry 100% on the hemoglobin) – which means that tissue oxygen levels do not go down (since the hemoglobin bonded to the CO can’t carry any – that is a risk). Second, when using hyperbaric oxygen, the half life of the CO molecule’s bond to the hemoglobin is decreased.
Primary treatment for CO poisoning is normobaric oxygen (simple non-rebreather mask) and certain drugs. Only when the physician determines that the patient may need HBOT is it used.
how’d your family get carbon monoxide poisoning?
I like it when the picture is both awkward and funny. This fits the bill.
Hmmmm, I thought putting a plastic bag on your head was a bad thing….
Not when there’s pure oxygen being pumped into it….
HAHAHAHAHA!
first!
Ahem.
HIlarious…glad they are ok…but hilarious!
Some pics are much funnier with out the explanations…i wish this one was left off, I won’t be able to laugh at all the comments now, when I know the family went through something serious.
I can!!!
Glenna, you precious, precious thing. You look so cute and even have managed a small smile.
ROFL, totally.
So glad you all are OK! I guess it must be true then – “someday we’ll look back at this and laugh…”