Two o'clock in the morning.  A couple bottles of my strong pale ale Belgium style home brew.  Got the '80s rocking on Sirius Radio.  What better time to write about my smoking cessation progress?

Perhaps it's a corny way to start a blog, but I don't care.  I'm in the mood for reflecting on the “good ol' days” when I was a non-smoker.   You know, the younger years... the energetic era.  Those were the days when responsibilities were minimal and my poison was nothing more than sweets.

Sure, I had to do my homework, mow the grass and clean my room.  But, generally speaking, I didn't have the slightest concern for personal health.  I was cut like a knife – all 126 pounds, a member of the great Pisgah High School wrestling team, and didn't think twice about running 2 miles to the store for a pack of gob-stoppers and various “junk food."

I could bench press twice my body weight, run full-court b-ball at the Canton, North Carolina, YMCA all day long, and still have enough energy left to make some football card money by hunting nightcrawlers (worms) until the wee hours in the morning. If you ever wondered where your fishing bait comes from, it arrives via “head-lamp-wearing” teenage fools like me.

But for some reason, I ruined my pristine health when I was 29 years old by choosing to “be cool” with my motorcycle friends and lighting up.  I mean, what's one lousy cigarette going to do?  I'm still young.  I have self-control.  I can smoke only when I'm around the biker boys.  Right!  It was only a matter of days before I rationalized buying a pack so I wouldn't have to bum off my friends.  Pretty soon, I was smoking a pack a day.

Since 1998, the cigarette has had an iron-clad grip on my soul.  I couldn't eat a meal without “rewarding” myself with a nice after-dinner toke.  I couldn't hang out with the guys, enjoy a football game, or even drive without a smoke.

I started thinking about quitting perhaps five years into the habit.  It seemed everywhere I turned, people were telling me how unhealthy smoking had become – as if it wasn't unhealthy in the past and only recently became dangerous!

I noticed the social changes, too.  Airlines quit asking if I wanted smoking or non-smoking.  Restaurants, where there were smoking and non-smoking sections, soon became entirely smoke-free.  Prices went from $1 a pack to $5 a pack within a few years.  Even tobacco companies were publishing campaigns on smoking cessation.

So, I thought, I'll give it a whirl... I'll stop smoking.  How hard can it be?

I started with the patch.  You know, a trans-dermal method for injecting just the nicotine and “not all the other harmful chemicals found in cigarettes."  I dealt with the vivid dreams and headaches and was able to stay smoke-free for a couple months.

But at the first sign of stress I was back at it.  The trigger?  Nothing more than a friend who lit up in front of me.  “Hey, can I get one of those?” I asked.  That one cigarette was all it took.  Within a week I was back up to a pack a day.

Next, I thought I'd try it “cold turkey."  That was a complete waste of time.  I think I made it through 2 days before I wanted to squeeze someone's neck.  It didn't matter to me... wife, son, daughter, friend, pet... any neck would do!

How about some tasty nicotine gum?  Sure, if you like freshly-cut rubber from a gum tree with a delightful feet-juice additive, then this is probably the best route a smoker can take towards their smoke-free life.  That idea lasted about two pieces of gum.

After another year of feeling like I was breathing through a box of grits, my new quitting scheme became a calculated science.  I opened up Microsoft Word and looked at the calendar for a stop date.  1 month from today.  If I smoke 16 today, and hold myself accountable for those 16 cigarettes, I can smoke 15 tomorrow.  My plan had me outlining what I call the “draw-down."

I mean, hey, if I built up my physical dependence on this crap, then I can forgo all the gimmicks of gum and patches and cleanse my body the natural way.

This, I rationalized, would reduce my daily dependence and I would be able to call it quits at the end of the month.  So, I created a chart.  Day 1: 16 smokes.  Day 2: 15 smokes.  Day 3: 14 smokes.

I calculated the exact time  I would smoke based on the day's allowance, divided by the number of “awake” hours I had in my typical day (for some reason, I had no trouble being smoke-free while I was asleep!).  This actually worked for me.  I would place my initials on one of the allowable spaces each time I had a smoke.  I finally had commitment.  I had viewable control.  I drew down and kicked the habit.  For 4 months.  Then, I relapsed.  I don't recall why, but I did.

So, I continued moving right along with my happy self.  Life was good.  I had my tobacco security blanket.  It solved any problems I encountered.

But as I neared my 40s, I started noticing subtle changes in my health.  It took longer to fall asleep.  Coughing became a constant nuisance.  My $50 cologne was overshadowed by “Eau De La Forest Fire."  There was never enough flavor in my food.  The term “renewable energy” made me laugh.  And, I found myself becoming lazy.

Ten years into my habit, I saw the next big “quit-smoking” tool on late night television.  It was amazing!  An electronic cigarette!

This thing gave you the nicotine, produced the “smoke," and even lit up with a glow when you puffed.  I could smoke it anywhere – the restaurant, on an airplane – without repercussion.

What a complete waste of money.  While the e-cig addressed my habit of toking, I really didn't find it useful in actually quitting.  Probably the best thing that happened with this approach is my wife accidentally washed it, and I had an excuse to buy a pack of real smokes.

So there you have it - five ways I tried, and failed, to kick the cancer stick. But since being chosen as one of the Lucky 7 in the CNN 2012 Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge, I've been shown a completely new approach in becoming smoke-free: I've finally admitted that I'm unable to go it alone.

My personal trainer, Bill Wilkins, enrolled me in a Freedom from Smoking class at the MedWest Fitness Center in Waynesville, North Carolina.  Today was my second weekly class.

Our “teach” and Dr. Sanjay Gupta fan, Kathy, has a sincere approach in seeing us succeed, and has already enlightened me concerning some very interesting smoking facts and alternative methods for cessation.  In two weeks, we are scheduled for our quit day.  For some reason, I'm buying into what Kathy is teaching us and truly expect to succeed this time around.

I feel somewhat embarrassed that for the first time in my life I require outside assistance in accomplishing something important. However, I have a confident outlook on this humbling endeavor in becoming smoke-free forever.

Unlike my younger years, today I have far greater responsibilities.  People rely on me.  Plus, I'm still young, and I'm not going to allow tobacco to rob me of my prime any longer.

Who's with me?

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Erivedge under the agency's priority review program. The program provides an expedited six-month review process for drugs that may result in major treatment advances.

Erivedge is for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma  who are not candidates for radiation or surgery, or for those whose cancer has spread. BCC is the most common form of skin cancer in the country. It grows slowly and is generally curable.

The new drug inhibits a molecular pathway called the Hedgehog pathway, which is found in most basal cell cancers.

"Our understanding of molecular pathways involved in cancer, such as the Hedgehog pathway, has enabled the development of targeted drugs for specific diseases," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "This approach is becoming more common and will potentially allow cancer drugs to be developed more quickly. This is important for patients who will have access to more effective therapies with potentially fewer side effects."

This is the first FDA-approved treatment for metastatic BCC. It comes in pill form - a capsule that's taken once a day.

According to the drug's manufacturer, Genentech, an independent review of clinical studies found Erivedge shrank lesions in 43% of patients with locally advanced BCC and 30% in patients with metastatic BCC.

"Today's approval provides a new treatment for people with advanced basal cell carcinoma who, until now, had no approved medicines to help shrink disfiguring or potentially life-threatening lesions," said Dr. Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head, Global Product Development for Genentech.

Dr. Evan Lipson, and instructor of medical oncology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has treated patients with the drug.

"Like most of the pathway therapy drugs that we are using these days, these drugs are remarkably successful compared to the chemotherapy drugs that have been available to us up until now," Lipson said. "The downside is that the effects of the drug on the tumor are not as long lasting as we would like and research is underway to develop ways to create longer lasting responses."

There are side effects , including muscle spasms, hair loss, weight loss, distorted sense of or loss of taste. Erivedge will come with a black box warning about the potential risk of death, and of severe birth defects to unborn babies. Pregnancy status must be verified before starting treatment.

According to Genentech, the drug will be available within two weeks.

The EPA’s free AIRNow app for Apple or Android phones allows users to enter a Zip Code and receive the pollutant and ozone levels for more than 400 cities across the country. You can also choose to check your current location.

The app gives levels for ozone and particle pollution such as automotive exhaust and an overall assessment of “good,” “moderate,” “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” “unhealthy,” “very unhealthy” and “hazardous.”

People with heart or lung conditions, children and older adults are most at risk when particle pollution, called PM 2.5, is elevated, according to the EPA. PM 2.5 measures the number of particles 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, about 30 times smaller in diameter than the human hair. These particles come from a wide variety of sources, including motor vehicles, wood stoves and industry.

AIRNow also offers a color-coded map of the United States showing today’s current air quality and the forecast.

If you want alerts sent by e-mail, you can subscribe at EPA’s EnviroFlash allows you to specify where you live and what level of air quality you want to hear about.

A free UV Index app, by the EPA and the National Weather Service, gives users the levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation by Zip Code.

For example, the UV Index for 33040 (Key West, Florida) Monday was a 6, deemed high. The site advises wide brimmed hats and sunglasses, sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher, and "long-sleeved shirts and pants where practical."

On the other hand, the UV Index in Fargo, North Dakota, on Monday was a 2, or low, meaning “you can safely enjoy being outside.”

UV radiation from the sun (and tanning beds) is classified as a human carcinogen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization. Avoiding unprotected exposure to UV radiation reduces the chance of skin cancer, which is the most common form of cancer.

The Gates Foundation, along with 13 pharmaceutical companies, the World Bank, other global health organizations and the governments of the U.S., U.K. and United Arab Emirates, announced the effort Monday. It's called the London Declaration on Neglected Diseases.

The goal is to eliminate 10 neglected tropical diseases by the end of the decade by expanding the drug donations, providing about $785 million to support research and development, and efforts to address treatment.

The diseases include Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), blinding trachoma (an infectious eye disease), sleeping sickness and leprosy, soil-transmitted helminthes (intestinal worms), schistosomiasis (parasitic infection), river blindness, Chagas disease (parasitic disease) and visceral leishmaniasis (sandfly infection).

The 13 pharmaceutical companies have signed on to donate an average of 1.4 billion treatments, such as tablets to treat elephantiasis, donations to treat sleeping sickness, and drugs to treat worm infection.

In the past, drug companies have been accused of ignoring tropical diseases in favor of developing drugs targeted towards first-world health problems.

The participating drug companies are:  AstraZeneca,  Abbott, Bayer HealthCare AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb,  Eisai, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline,  Johnson & Johnson, Merck, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer and Sanofi.

“Our members and researchers around the world applaud this unprecedented level of international cooperation to improve the lives of the 1.4 billion people around the world who are disabled, blinded and suffer needlessly from neglected tropical diseases,” according to a statement released by American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

As part of the effort against neglected diseases, the Gates foundation has pledged $23.3 million toward eradicating Guinea worm.  The foundation named after Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, has invested more than $100 million in the effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease.

Guinea worm is a debilitating disease which is only in three countries.  If eradicated, the Guinea worm disease would become the second disease wiped out by mankind.  The first is smallpox. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation will together contribute $40 million to end Guinea worm disease by 2015, the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, Georgia, announced Monday.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center have led public health efforts tackling neglected diseases most Americans have never heard of.  The Carter Center began its campaign to get rid of the Guinea worm in 1986 and have come closer each year to eradicating the disease.

The disease remains in three sub-Saharan African countries: Mali, Ethiopia and Southern Sudan.

In Sudan, a war is waged to eradicate the 'fiery serpent'

Unlike smallpox, the Guinea worm disease is not fatal. But there is no treatment for it and there's no vaccine to prevent infection either, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This disease can, however, cause permanent disabilities to people, crippling their livelihood and local economies. The key to eradicating the disease is access to clean water and changes in people's behavior because the parasitic Guinea worm lives in stagnant water. When a person drinks the contaminated water, the worm grows inside its human host for a year until it emerges through the skin, causing great pain and in some cases, infections.

The research, conducted by the University of Michigan, found more than 30% of parents do not enforce the rule of booster seats when their kids are with another driver. Investigators also found 45% of parents do not require their little ones to use a booster when they're driving other children who don't have booster seats.

"The majority of parents reported that their children between the ages of four and eight use a safety seat when riding in the family car," says Dr. Michelle Macy, a clinical lecturer of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a pediatrician at U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "However, it's alarming to know that close to 70% of parents carpool, and when they do, they're often failing to use life-saving booster seats."

Researchers believe car overcrowding and lack of time to coordinate booster seat switch offs are to blame for the lack of safety for kids in carpooling situations. Some parents seem to look the other way. But it's against the law, and many don’t understand that.

“If parents don’t have a booster seat for a child under eight, it’s not safe,” stressed Macy.  “We realize life happens and things come up, but parents know they need to go by the laws or come up with options that are just as safe.”

Most states require children to use a booster seat up to the age of eight. National recommendations encourage booster seats be used until a child grows to 57 inches, which is the average height of an 11-year-old, according to the study. Researchers also noted half of parents surveyed said they did not know the age limit on booster seats in their states and another 20 percent guessed incorrectly. That's why, study authors say, pediatricians should make it a top priority to let parents know about these laws.

"According to current recommendations most children should be using booster seats beyond the age cited in state laws. As many parents may not even be aware of current booster seat recommendations, pediatricians should make it a priority to share this vital information with them," says Macy.

Q: Sometimes I see little brown specks floating in my field of vision. Should I be worried?

A: Those squiggly, dark lines and spots are called "eye floaters." They are typically caused by age-related changes in the vitreous humor, the jelly-like substance that fills most of the eyeball.

Floaters are common and usually nothing to worry about.

If you start having them while seeing flashes of light, though, or suddenly get a bunch at once, see an ophthalmologist right away - you could have a tear in your retina, which may lead to vision loss if not treated ASAP.

Vietnam veterans, environmental advocates and women’s groups were among the more than 2,000 individuals and organizations signing a letter Thursday urging EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to publish the dioxin risk assessment.

“We are writing to strongly urge you to finalize the EPA’s study on dioxin, which has been delayed for over 25 years,” the one-page letter says.

The EPA has said it would release its non-cancer risk assessment for dioxin by the end of the month, with the agency’s dioxin cancer risk assessment following “as expeditiously as possible.”

The chemical industry and a number of food groups have written the EPA administrator saying the anticipated standards would be misleading and bad for business.

EPA, which published its first dioxin-related report in 1983, has been working ever since on defining the risks for dioxins, a family of chemicals characterized by the EPA as “likely human carcinogens.” They accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals and move up the food chain. Exposure comes primarily from meat, dairy, fish and shellfish.

Dioxin exposure has been linked to learning disabilities, birth defects, endometriosis and diabetes. The developing fetus and newborns, exposed through breast milk, are considered particularly vulnerable to dioxin exposure.

Almost every man, woman and child on the planet has some dioxin in their bodies, though exposures to the chemicals have declined over the last two decades as the result of tougher regulations in some countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Most dioxins are byproducts of such industrial processes as waste incineration, the chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the manufacture of some herbicides and pesticides. Dioxin was an impurity in Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively in Vietnam.

Paul Sutton, 67, among the letter’s signors, served two tours in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. Sutton says he was exposed to dioxin when he sprayed the perimeter of firebases with Agent Orange. All three sons were born with birth defects, he said, which he blames on his dioxin exposure.

“Going back to the first Bush Administration, George Herbert Walker Bush, we have been at loggerheads with the Environmental Protection Agency with the reassessment of dioxin, which was originally supposed to have been published in 1990,” he said.

In a statement, Lois Marie Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, said the EPA “has repeatedly allowed the chemical industry to delay its efforts to finalize its study.”

Scott Jensen, with American Chemistry Council, said the industry group fears the EPA dioxin standards will raise unfounded fears about the safety of the food supply. He pointed to the Department of Agriculture’s “MyPlate” recommendations for a healthy diet.

“If you follow through on the USDA guidelines, you will have a fair amount of population exceeding what EPA says is an acceptable level of dioxin,” Jensen said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and a number of other food groups co-signed a letter to the EPA earlier this month saying, “We remain concerned agency actions will inadvertently mislead and frighten consumers about the safety of food and may trigger negative trading partner actions, either of which could have a major negative economic impact on U.S. food producers.”

Let me just get this out of the way upfront: I had an orgasm in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.

That is, as background research for my book, "Dirty Minds: How our brains influence love, sex and relationships," I participated in a study at Rutgers University where scientists measured the activity in my brain as I self-stimulated to an orgasm.

I wasn’t the first woman to participate in one of these studies - and I won’t be the last.

I know, it’s controversial and perhaps even a bit shocking. And, because of that, I expected readers and commenters to make a few jokes at my expense (and perhaps even question my character) when I wrote about the experience.

But what I didn’t expect was so much outrage about sex research in general.

Time and time again, regardless of the publication discussing my fMRI orgasm, commenters wrote things like, “If only researchers were as interested in finding a cure for cancer,” and “I can’t believe my tax dollars are going to pay for such useless research.”

How can the study of human sexuality be considered useless? This is something that is prevalent in each and every one of our lives. When we’re not having sex, we’re talking about it. When we’re not talking about it, we’re thinking about it. And when we’re not thinking about it, we worry that something is wrong with us.

Sex is a primary source of human motivation and can change the way we act and the way we feel in quite dramatic ways. And this isn’t something that occurs solely in the privacy of our bedrooms: You see sex at play in advertising and marketing, in problems in the work place, in self-esteem and identity, in pleasure and reward, and also in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

Human sexuality has direct influence over so many aspects of day-to-day life. Understanding such a universal phenomenon is never useless. Yet, many want to discount its importance - and its study.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Kinsey, esteemed biologist and founder of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, pioneered the study of sexual behavior with the publication of the Kinsey Reports. That work was the first of its kind: a systematic, scientific approach to understanding variation in normal sexual behavior. And, thankfully, his work has inspired countless brave scientists in the decades since to buck the status quo and study human sexuality.

Yet, while we’ve come a long way in our understanding the biology of sex, there is still plenty left to discover. We now have a good deal of data on the mechanics of sexual behavior.

But as anyone who has ever been involved in a sexual relationship knows, there’s a lot more to sex than pure mechanics - a heck of a lot more. The blossoming field of neuroscience, including neuro-imaging studies like the orgasm one I participated in as well as cellular and molecular research, is now offering us a new window of understanding into age-old questions about sex and related behaviors by focusing on all the ways our brains influence our behaviors.

During the course of my research for "Dirty Minds," I asked neuroscientific researchers about the greatest challenges involved in studying human sexuality. I expected to hear concerns about finding study participants willing to be honest about their sex lives or if what was learned in the laboratory could really be applied to real-world behaviors.

But unanimously, the scientists I talked to said their greatest challenge was finding research grants and financial support for their work. Because so many of us are peevish about the study of sex, funding agencies can be, too. But none of us should be. Human sexuality is important - and its study is something we should all get behind. Because we can’t begin to have discussions about how to best deal with problems concerning sexual behavior, sexual function and sexual intimacy until we have a better handle on what’s normal.

Time and time again, I’m asked how I managed to have an orgasm in an fMRI scanner. But that’s not the right question. The important question is why I had an orgasm in an fMRI scanner. And that’s to help further our understanding of orgasm and human sexuality. When I say I came for the science - I mean it. And it’s my hope that more people will do the same in the future.

The number of home births in the U.S. jumped by 29% from 2004 to 2009. Although home births are still rare - they account for less than 1% of all births - this is a pretty rapid increase, said Marian MacDorman, statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Forty, 50 years ago, there was this idea that hospital birth was more modern. Now it's the opposite."

The biggest increase was in non-Hispanic white women. About 1 in 90 births in that segment of the population is now a home birth, according to the report. Home births are most common among women over the age of 35 who have already had at least one child.

The data doesn't tell us why home births have increased, MacDorman said, but she can take a few educated guesses. Cost may be an issue; on average, home births cost about one third less than hospital births. Another reason may be dissatisfaction with the care women in labor receive at a hospital. Doctors and nurses are busy, often caring for more than one patient at a time whereas at home, a woman can have a midwife attending only to her.

Home births are all about personal choice, said Eileen Beard, senior practice advisor for the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Beard has been a midwife since 1977 and has attended the births of thousands of babies.

"It's 'attended,' not delivered," she said. "The mother is the one who delivers. We just catch."

Beard said women are becoming more aware that they have a choice when it comes to having their baby. Mothers often choose to deliver at home because they embrace the idea that giving birth is a normal, physiological process.

"It's difficult to have a normal birth in the hospital setting because of the culture of the hospital and interventions that are routine," Beard said.

At home a woman is free to surround herself with the items and people she loves. She's able to move around and get into a birthing position that's comfortable. While this is possible at a hospital, procedures and routine make it more complicated. Feeling safe and relaxed leads to less need for medication, Beard said.

"The more control you have over what's happening makes a big difference."

Safety is always the number one concern. Home births have a lower risk profile than hospital births, with fewer babies born premature, fewer teen mothers and fewer multiple births, according to the report. That's because midwives do such a good job of choosing candidates, according to MacDorman.

Beard said certified midwives have guidelines and protocols they follow. Mothers should be healthy with no major medical problems or obstetrical complications. And if there's a problem during delivery, they don't hesitate to take the mother to a hospital.

Getting in the pool has forced me to face a number of fears. The first being the obvious fear - ditching the doggie paddle and actually learning how to swim. The other fear is not so obvious and much more personal.

The swim is the only leg of the race that I’ll be doing, well, legless. Prosthetics aren’t made to be submerged in water and I can imagine it would be quite difficult to swim with a heavy piece of carbon fiber attached to my body.

My prosthetic has been my safety net ever since I learned to walk again. It has essentially become my super hero cape. When I wear it, I know I can do anything. I have the world in the palm of my hand. Without it, am I handicapped?

That is a word I seldom use to describe myself. But whenever I catch a glimpse of myself without my prosthetic on, it really hits me. That’s when I’m forced to face the fact that this is me and this is how it’s going to be forever.

This isn’t the bad dream where you’re in your high school in nothing but your underwear. There is no magical unicorn blood that I can drink to help regenerate my leg. This is real life. I am an amputee. And that is a lot harder to swallow than the occasional mouthful of pool water.

Facing this realization, I jumped in the pool for the first time and, much to my surprise, it was not as bad as I expected it to be. My coaches, Mickey Cassu and Kristin Cacicedo of Start-Tri.com, had me swim the length just to see where my knowledge base was. By the time I reached the end, I was panting. All I could think was, “How am I supposed to swim half of a mile... in the Pacific Ocean?!?!”

Then Mickey assured me that if he swam the way I did, he would be out of breath too. That’s when I learned how to work with the water instead of against it.

Since that first lesson, I’ve been swimming on my own at least three times a week. Along with these solo swim workouts, I’ve met with Mickey and Kristin two other times for some one-on-one training. I can already feel the improvements that I’ve made, which makes me hungry for more. Every time I’m at the pool I “swim stalk” other people and I’m mesmerized by their perfect form and ability to glide through the water. I want that.

Helping me get there is my new best friend – the pull buoy. It helps me keep my focus on my breathing and where my arm entry is.

“Head in the water, rotate every third stroke to breathe, repeat.” Trying to form muscle memory is a lot harder than I remember. It’s going to take a lot of repetition. It’s going to take a lot of repetition!

So, for now, I’m just going to keep baby steppin’ until it becomes second nature. I’m going to keep clicking my leg off and hopping to the edge of the water to dive in. Overcoming all of my fears, one stroke at a time.