Last Wednesday, I'd been suffering through what I thought was just a stubborn cold. It had lasted almost two weeks, and I finally gave up and went to the doctor.

The doctor said I had bronchitis; he wrote me prescriptions for an antibiotic and some weapons-grade cough syrup and sent me home from work for the rest of the week.

It had been ages since I'd been home sick for more than a day. I felt bad, but I really didn't feel "bed sick." Even so, I laid around my apartment, watching TV, checking my work e-mail in case there was something I needed to forward to a co-worker, and generally taking it easy.

I had to run out Friday to the bank, for some groceries and to get the rest of my cough syrup (the pharmacy ran out on Wednesday and only gave me half the prescribed amount). I wasn't gone long, and it was all legitimate business, but I still worried that someone would see me toodling around town and think, "Isn't he supposed to be home sick?"

A friend of mine who is an Episcopal youth director in Franklin wrote in her blog a few weeks back that sometimes sickness is God's way of forcing us to take a sabbath. In my case, "sabbath" may be overstating the case somewhat; I certainly can't claim to have spent 2 1/2 days in devotional prayer. In fact, my time at home was somewhat self-centered, and "sabbath" implies a day of rest for a higher purpose. Even so, sometimes sickness is a reminder to slow down.

Not that it's easy. I'd covered the issue of school attire / dress code for the past year, winning a statewide award for a two-part series I wrote on the subject last May, and it was frustrating to sit at home Thursday night knowing that someone else was covering the climactic up-or-down vote on the measure.

Fortunately, I have great co-workers. Sadie Fowler did a terrific job with the school board meeting, just as my other co-workers filled in ably in my absence.

I'm back at work this week, although I'm still hoarse and a little tired, not quite 100 percent. The series of antibiotic pills is supposed to keep working for several days after I finished it, so hopefully I will have cleared up somewhat by the end of the week. I hope my voice returns by Sunday, since I'm supposed to fill in for my Sunday School teacher.

I gave up the cough syrup when I came back to work, because it made me a little drowsy, and I didn't really want people to find me asleep at my desk. It's the first prescription I've ever filled where I specifically had to show photo ID; I wasn't aware that the Jefferson Airplane actually endorsed a cough syrup.

Anyway, I think sometimes sickness causes us to be grateful for the health we do enjoy the rest of the time, and keeps us from taking our miraculous bodies for granted. I'm trying to see it that way, in between the coughing.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.