Dear Heloise >> I like what a reader wrote in about doctor’s office etiquette. I have a short but funny story about getting an appointment. Years ago, I saw my doctor right before Christmas at a morning rotary meeting. He mentioned that I should do something about my sniffles.

After telling him I will not wait in a waiting room unless the situation is really bad, I then mentioned that I was frying fresh turkeys the same day for my customers. I told him I would bring him one if I were able to get an appointment with no wait. He immediately told me 11:30 a.m.

As I opened the clinic door at 11:30 a.m., the door was not quite closed when I heard the doctor yell from the back, “Let Rhett in with that turkey!” He smelled the thing like a hound dog. Now, once a year, he expects a turkey, and I expect service — 30 years later.

-- Rhett Bourgeois, Gonzales, Louisiana

Dear Heloise >> Over-the-counter medications are discouraged in hospitals. There are potential drug interactions with medications that are prescribed by the doctor while patients are in the hospital. If a patient wants a medication in hospital, the safest way is to ask for it through the nurse. Thank you.

-- Jeanne, Fullerton

Dear Heloise >> Whenever my daughter’s old dog has an accident on my wood floor, I may not see it right away. But when I do discover it, I mop up the urine with paper towels and sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda. I leave it this way for several days before I sweep and vacuum it up. No stain, no smell!

-- M.B., via email

Dear Heloise >> I wanted to write in regarding a recent letter where Mary, in Abilene, Texas, suggested substituting jelly with thinly sliced bananas for a healthy PB&J sandwich. One of my mother’s favorite treats was to spread peanut butter over slices of bananas cut lengthwise. This made a great “breadless” sandwich snack!

-- Reagan Cartwright, in Dallas

Dear Heloise >> Like S.Y., in Arizona, I am 80 years old and was also brought up being told, “Don’t throw it away. You never know when you may need it later.” I still feel guilty when I break this commandment. But we baby boomers need to remember that our parents were brought up during the Depression, when people couldn’t afford to replace something that was only slightly worn, a little worse for wear, outgrown, or passe.

-- Mamadoll, in Albany, New York

Dear Heloise >> I changed the light bulbs in my garage unit to LED light bulbs, and the open and close buttons on the rearview mirror in both of our cars stopped working when we backed out of our garage, or when we came home. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. After two weeks, I went back to having regular light bulbs in our garage, and our buttons are now working fine.

-- D.V., in Ohio

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