Close the disengaged nostril with a finger. Dip the other nostril -- not finger -- into your little dish of warm salted water.

I use a little bowl about the size of the palm of my hand.

Yesterday, when I was at the drugstore waiting for a prescription, I whiled away the time perusing the shelves of cold nostrums. Among them I saw a saline aerosol with a long plastic nozzle obviously designed for sluicing the nose -- great idea, if you don't happen to have a little bowl.

If the P-Vine is coming down with bronchitis, she needs to see a doc and get an antibiotic. A sinus infection -- ditto, like Eliza says.

As a practising, card-carrying asthmatic, I consider myself something of a snot guru. The thing you need to do is check the colour of the gunk (disgusting, I know, but there it is). Yellow or green sputum means pus, which means bacterial disease. White or clear sputum means no bacterial disease, but continuing irritation in the bronchi and/or lungs. A constant headache focussed in the forehead and/or around the eyes means infected sinuses.

I have tried syrups with guaifenesin in them, but Mucinex is new to me; perhaps it's not available in Canada. The syrups never do me much good, possibly because the gunk factory in my lungs never lets up.

Now you know everything I know.