DEAR HELOISE: I really appreciated your column on carbon monoxide. I had carbon-monoxide poisoning in 2013, after being sick for one and a half to two years, with symptoms coming and going.
I had seen 35 doctors in one year and gone to the emergency room so many times that I couldn't keep count. I was told I had anxiety and that was why my heart was racing out of nowhere. I finally tried alternative medicine, and I was told that I had too much gas in my body. This convinced me that I was being poisoned by something in the air, but I couldn't figure it out.
I finally bought a carbon-monoxide detector and tied it around me. It went off in my car! I had an exhaust leak from a broken bolt in my high-end SUV, which caused the detector to go off like crazy. I made one final trip to the emergency room because I was so dizzy and thin. I asked them to do a blood-gas test (that was never done on me), which came back positive for carbon-monoxide poisoning.
I think the message needs to be out there that carbon-monoxide poisoning is very real, and it can be in your home or even your car (I am now in a new car).
-- Suzanne L. in California
DEAR READER: What an extreme case, but worth sharing with others. So glad you are now doing well and were able to figure this out.
DEAR HELOISE: I groom my Yorkshire terrier. I can see the damage if I cut off a knot of hair with scissors. Instead, I use an envelope opener (the square, plastic kind with a razor blade inside it). It magically separates and removes the knot.
-- R.N., via email
DEAR HELOISE: My wife and I divide the to-do list around our house. I write mine on the back of one of the extra business cards we have lying around. I can easily slip it into my wallet and have access whenever I need it.
-- Jack in Tennessee
DEAR HELOISE: Would you please tell your readers that when sending sympathy cards, memorials, donations, flowers and even food, in memory of someone who has died, to please sign their first and last names and add their mailing address? After my mother's funeral, I wrote 350 thank-you cards. However, there were several people whom I could not thank, even though I wanted to, because I did not know their last names and/or mailing addresses.
-- D.E., via email
DEAR HELOISE: If you put ointment on a bandage pad, rather than directly on the wound, it's less likely to smear onto surrounding areas, which keeps the bandage from adhering well.
-- D.F., via email
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email
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Weekend on 06/05/2014