A Toast to Cancer
A small, red wound—no bigger than a poppy seed—appeared mysteriously on the bridge of my nose a few months ago. At first it sat there quietly and behaved itself, and I assumed the strange bump would heal steadily and vanish as furtively as it had arrived. Only it didn’t, and pretty soon it started to grow bigger and act out. One day it would bleed; the next it would scab over in a sort of mini, leathery patch; and then, right when it seemed the ugly scab had almost disappeared—when it seemed we’d soon part ways—it would open up and bleed irritably again. Day to day, I couldn’t predict its mood; it was like living with a touchy teenager. Eventually, I realized that I would need to make the necessary arrangements to evict the tiny squatter. And so I went to see a dermatologist, who peered at my nose suspiciously […]