I have a rough patch of skin on the bridge of my nose. It's been there for some time -- how much time, I really don't know -- and I am aware of it every day when I look in the mirror. I wash it, coat make-up on top of it, and sometimes pick at it and watch the flaky skin disappear. It always comes back, and then I study it, wash it, cover it all over again.

It's Skin Cancer Awareness Month and so I've been thinking more about this spot than usual, wondering if it could be more than just a spot. I even went so far as mentioning it to a medical student I saw a week ago during a breast cancer follow-up visit. But the inquiry never made it to my doctor and I've since let it drop.

I'm never sure just how to handle medical issues like these. Typically, I'm hyper-sensitive and worry about all that could be going wrong with my body. Sometimes, I am able to cope normally, realizing most everything is probably nothing. That' the route I took this time. Yet now, now that I've talked to my mom who had a basal cell skin cancer removed from her face years ago -- the kind that flakes away and then comes back -- I'm becoming convinced, pretty sure anyway, that this could be worse than I've imagined it to be.

Could the calm, peaceful, relaxed approach I so want for my life be the very thing that helps me delay a cancer diagnosis? Should I go back to panic mode every time something mysterious surfaces? I haven't quite figured it out yet. I have figured out this much: I'm calling my dermatologist today.