A Cold Wreaking Havoc

I looked in the mirror, earlier, and I hardly recognised the woman who looked back at me. Her hair was limp, her face was pale and puffy and her eyes were red. This was a woman who looked every day of her 66 years - and a good few more days too.

A cold can wreak havoc with anyone. Nik's had this one and she was quite poorly last week, worse than when her employers diagnosed her symptoms as Swine Flu in August. In my case, as I have COPD, colds can be fatal if you're very unlucky. I don't think I'm going to pop my clogs just yet but it's not just a case of sneezing etc. for a few days. My energy levels have reached zero and my bones appear to have evaporated. I'm not coughing as much as Nik was but, when I do cough, it's unpleasant.

I have to have oxygen for 15 hours a day (in my case, evenings and overnight) and it's not nice having a nasal cannula up your nose when you have cattarh. I don't usually use the oxygen machine during the day but, since this started, I'm using it a lot of the day too. This results in getting the tube tangled up, particularly in the kitchen, and getting it stuck, which results in my ears almost being yanked off. It also results in nasty episodes with the tubes but we'll forget those, OK?

Anyway, to get back to this mirror woman, I don't know who she is. She says she's me but she can't be, really, as she's a good 40 years older than I am. Most days she looks back with eye shadow and mascara on those eyes, not to make her look younger but because she wears glasses and eyes can "disappear" behind them. She usually has her hair brushed into a semblance of a style, too, and not dangling round her un-blushed cheeks. The thing is, though, I'm only 26. Oh the body may have been around more than twice that long but the Me, the REAL ME, is a 26 year old with all a 26 year old's energy and vivacity. She can walk a mile home, uphill, with half a dozen heavy shopping bags and 2 small children and still be laughing when she gets there. She's not this dreary, droopy creature with no strength who's looking at me now.

I put the TV on for X Factor and there were the judges. Cheryl and Danii looked so young and "dewy" - isn't Cheryl 26? I'm sure she is, roughly, about that, just like me. What stood out, though, was Louis. I know he's not 26 - so does he - but, oh Louis, there are ways and means....... From his very real grief over Stephen Gately's death to his joy and sorrow as an X Factor judge he has brought nothing but a blank face; not a tic, not a twitch, not a wrinkle or the tiniest line. Louis - Botox doesn't make you become your Soul Age, it just makes you look like the lights are on but no one's home.

You can rest assured, folks, the woman in my mirror won't be joining Louis - and Simon - in the Botox chair. My face has to move, just not so wearily.