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My link in my last post is NOT WORKING!

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My goal is to raise $5000 for 2009. Please click here to donate!

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THANK YOU!

It's a banner day for boobies!

I talked to the president of my company today and he graciously agreed to help financially support my journey to Charlotte next year.

I told him my goal:

$10,000 for breast cancer research in the next two years.


That number is huge but it doesn't scare me. I can do it.

My company is going to help.

It's an awesome day!

Race for the Cure day in Knoxville!

I'm heading out for a moment for the Knoxville Race for the Cure. I am more worried about being able to find parking and subsequently find my team than I am about actually participating in the race.

I'm mostly going to walk. Maybe some "wogging" (walk/jogging) as my friend Dawn calls it. I'm kind of embarressed that I'm not as fit as my teammates. They run all the time and then there's me. I can't run at all yet.

But, it's about the cause, so that's why I'm doing it. Hopefully it will all be okay.

Wish me luck. I'm #5974!

What about the knees?

I don't know anything about exercise. Seriously, like nothing.

So I'm concerned, I guess, a little bit. About my stupid knee.

It feels a LOT better, mind you. A lot. I can bend and twist in any number of ways and it's not a problem. I even jumped up and down just a little bit the other day it was okay.

But when I wake up in the morning or if I sit for a long time while at work? It's pretty hurty.

I'm still walking. I busted out a really good pace today and walked for thirty minutes and covered more than the mile and 1/2 that I would normally cover in that time period. It was a rough path even with lots of going upward hills and not so many going downward hills.

And right now? My knee doesn't hurt at all. It's not purple anymore either, so that's cool.


I'm just afraid of injury. I don't want to hurt something and keep myself from my goals.


Thoughts?

Keeping it moving.

I walked again last night. I took a different path which contained a lot more hills and a lot more douchebags than my usual path. My knee and ankle both felt fine the whole time I walked, which was a blessing. This morning my knee is sore, but when I say it's sore I don't mean it's so horrible I can't walk on it. I mean it's just a tad achy.

I can handle just a tad achy.

I walked for thirty minutes last night. It was late and getting dark and the children had homework. I felt like I could have gone further though.

I feel I am ready to walk for an hour at a time each time. I did that last Saturday, despite falling and hurting myself, so I'm sure I can do it when I'm not hobbling in pain.

After I do that for two weeks, I'm going to download a training plan. The internet is full of them, but they all recommend you are at a point at which you feel comfortable walking for one hour at a time before you start.


I'm almost there.


Well, I probably AM there. But I don't have confidence in myself yet. So I'll say I'm almost there.

I think I'm going to try it.

I didn't walk last night. Frankly, I was afraid. I really don't want to take a small injury and make it into a HUGE injury.

I tend to do that.

But my knee feels SO much better today. I can bend my leg in all sorts of awkward ways and nothing bad happens.

So I think I'm cool.

I'm going to walk after work. I won't run or anything. But I'm going to walk.

Yeah. Not cool.

So after I twisted my ankle and did this?


I fell onto my knee and did this:



Sexy.


Can you believe I walked another fifty-two minutes after doing that? What was I thinking?!?!?

Being clumsy sucks.

I asked Jason to walk with me tonight and it's a good thing I did.

I said to him, "I always carry my cell phone when I walk out here. I'm so afraid I'm going to twist my ankle and fall on this rocky path".

Literally, LITERALLY like less than two minutes later, I TWISTED MY STUPID ANKLE AND FELL.

I skinned my knee and, it turns out, twisted it. My ankle went a funky direction.

I got dirt all over my yoga pants, shoes, and my hand.

I got small rocks and gravel stuck in my hand.



I got up.


I kept walking.


In fact? I walked for an hour.



I might regret it tomorrow. But today? I didn't give up.

My big scare. By Stephanie age 32.

So I've been walking all the time and the place I walk the most is very heavily wooded. I had a huge amount of bug bites on both of my legs and on my arms and so when I was putting on deodorant one day and felt kind of ouchy about it, I figured I had gotten a bug bite under my arm.

Yes, I know that sounds crazy. But it made sense at the time.

It didn't feel better for a few days, so I looked at it again and noticed that it was red and raised and kind of bumpy. I felt of it and I definately felt a lump. Not a bug bite, but a definate, sincere, raised lump.

But I didn't freak out, you know? Why would I. It's just a lump under my arm. Could be a million things, right? Of course.

That night I was doing my civic duty as a woman and the daughter of a breast cancer survivor and feeling myself up.

And then I felt a lump.

It felt sort of the same as the one under my arm.

I felt again, just to make sure. Because, see, I'm kind of paranoid about breast cancer. I have been for a long time. I didn't want to see something that wasn't there.

I felt it again. It was there.


So.

I still didn't panic or freak out. I went to bed. The next day I went to work and as soon as the doctor's office opened I called them and said, "I need to come in, I have a lump".

So they asked me to come in the next day.

So I did.

And the doctor?

Found a total of three more lumps. In addition to the two I had already found.


And then the doctor?

Said, "How old was your mom when she was diagnosed?"

And I heard myself say, "Forty".

She said immediately, "Let's get this checked out right away".


I sat in the examining room, waiting. I could hear the nurse on the phone outside the door of my room. Scheduling an appointment for a mammogram. I heard her say,

"She's only thirty-two," and there was a pause and then, "Her mother was forty when she was diagnosed".



I have never in my life felt so alone and so young.


The next morning I went and had a mammogram and a breast ultrasound. I was the youngest person there and I felt very alone and scared. In my mind I felt like it was nothing, but I kept having these nagging doubts.

Turns out it WAS nothing, but I found out that I am at an increased risk for breast cancer, based on how I answered questions on the assessment I was given. A normal woman's risk of breast cancer in her lifetime is 12%.

My risk is 25%.

I asked my doctor if there was anything I could do to improve my odds, and sadly, there is nothing. I have the double whammy of having both parents have cancer and the misfortune of having a mother who was diagnosed very young.

The worst case scenario for me, at this point, is that I catch something very early.

I'm going to make sure that's the worst thing that happens.

Look what you can do!

Lean Cuisine has these really cute lunch bags for sale. They are only $9.95 and for every one you purchase they will donate $5 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.

And they are pretty styling this year!



You know you want one. Or, you know, twelve.

So. What the crap am I doing here?

My name is Stephanie Snowe. I am thirty-two years old and the mother of ten year old twins.

When I was sixteen years old my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It was a really hard time. My mom was really sick. I didn't know if she would live or die. She lost all of her hair and one of her boobs.

That was sixteen years ago.

I recently decided that I needed to get my fat ass into shape and, at the same time, do something with my life.

Thus, I decided to walk 39 miles in 2 days in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

The one problem?

I have a fat ass.

I am not in shape.



I have until October 2009 to get it in gear, lose weight, and prepare for the walk.


This blog will be my accountability.