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.

For those of you living for the moment, you are about to lose 60 whole minutes come Sunday when Daylight-saving time strikes once again.

This may throw you off a bit if you are one to maximize every second, minute, and hour you are afforded in this tenuous life. And while I can't offer you any secrets for recapturing this lost time, I can share some thoughts, compliments of professional organizer Linda Richards of Organize and More, on how you might compensate for Sunday's lost hour.

Think about this:

• Go to bed 15 minutes earlier and get up 15 minutes earlier starting a few days before the time change.
• Move any important meetings to later in the week so you body isn't as tired.
• Snack on healthy foods such as fruits and nuts to replenish energy.
• Shorten your to-do list to your top three to five priorities.
• Print out a copy of your calendar and appointments for March and make sure your computer has a patch to handle the earlier time change this year.
  

In November 2004, my husband I and decided to try to have a third child. But instead of getting pregnant, I got breast cancer. And with the aggressive treatment I would receive -- surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and Herceptin therapy -- becoming pregnant was not an option. Birth control became my only option -- an option that has many limits for premenopausal women surviving breast cancer.

If you plan to use the nicotine patch to quit smoking, it would be nice to know up front if it's going to work. Because nothing is more discouraging than making an attempt at something and believing you have help -- only to find out the help was no help at all. The problem seems to be in the basic fact that nicotine metabolizes in the body at different rates for different people. The higher the metabolism rate, the more cravings a smoker experiences. The more cravings, the less likely a standard nicotine patch will be effective. Researchers believe that a simple blood test to measure the rate at which a smoker metabolizes nicotine can predict the success or failure outcome of a smoking cessation program using the patch.

"If a prospective study replicates these results, we will be in a position to recommend this blood test to tailor the type and dose of nicotine replacement therapy for smokers who wish to quit," states Caryn Lerman, PhD, Associate Director for Cancer Control at the Abramson Cancer Center and Director of the University of Pennsylvania Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center.

Here's what I am thinking -- if they know how the body metabolizes nicotine to satisfy the addictive cravings for nicotine, why can't they come up with something that blocks the process before it begins? Thereby making smoking a completely unsatisfactory experience. Just a thought.