HELOISE: Wear your own clothes for MRI

Dear Heloise: Recently, I had to have an MRI for some severe back pain I was experiencing. Being a plus-size woman, I was unable to fit into those tiny gowns that the MRI center provided.

The MRI tech advised me that as long as I was not wearing any metal, what I was wearing was fine. I had to remove my bra because of the metal closures, but otherwise, I felt much more comfortable in my own clothes.

The friendliness of the staff helped me as well. They were very compassionate and helped me feel at ease. The way that people treat you makes all the difference in the world!

K.M. in Colorado

Readers, check with the staff before going for your MRI about what to wear.

Speaking of staff friendliness, we get letters all the time about bad experiences with nurses, techs, office staff, etc., being rude or standoffish to patients.

If you work with people, it is important to be friendly and courteous. If patients had a bad experience, they will likely go to another office, etc. So, please be courteous, as it is the patients who in the end pay your salary.

Heloise

Dear Readers: Here are a few ways you can use those perfume sample bottles to help freshen or scent all kinds of things:

Drop a couple in with a gift.

Dampen a cotton ball and place it in your vacuum cleaner bag for a fragrance.

Take along an assortment in a self-sealing plastic bag, and leave the regular-size bottles at home.

Freshen musty closets by applying fragrance to a few cotton balls and then placing them in a small margarine tub with a lid that has several holes poked in it.

To mask garbage odors, sprinkle on a paper towel and place in a garbage pail under the plastic trash bag.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: My hint is using a travel toothbrush holder to hold a paring knife in my lunch bag. I use a knife to cut apples, and found this to be the safest way to carry a paring knife. Thanks.

Lynn Duncan, Brockville, Ontario, Canada

Dear Heloise: Put your wet shower cap over the agitator of the washing machine to dry. This also works for plastic bags you wash for reuse.

Ruth Ferris, North Canton, Ohio

Dear Heloise: I’m so aggravated that all the companies that sell bread add so many sweeteners to their bread now. We buy whole wheat, and I have to read every package — all of them have high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, honey or molasses (or a combination of some of them). We recently bought whole-grain bread that is so sweet, we can’t make a sandwich out of it. I used it for toast the first (and last) time I bought it, and it was too sweet for toast!

Carol from Texas

King Features Syndicate