By Suzanne B. Robotti My mother had a strict rule when I was a child. If one of her 4 kids was sick enough to stay home from school, we got bed rest and no TV. Staring at the ceiling all morning was enough to get most of us back to school by lunchtime. This is why I knew I was very sick last week. For the first time in several years, I had an upper respiratory infection — a nasty cold or maybe the flu. I spent most of a day and a half wandering vaguely from couch to bed, coughing spasmodically, feeling very dull. I didn’t even feel like turning on the TV. By the third day, I’d finished up my cough lozenges that were sticky with old age and expired DayQuil (which upset my stomach and made me confused). I wanted relief from my cough and stuffy nose.