I miss those days when life used to be easy. After I had started walking on my prosthesis again and had resumed my normal life I thought I had earned those days back. I was adjusting to the changes well and thought the difficult days were behind me. It turns out they aren’t.

I had planned an east coast trip for the second half of September. The first stop was Manhattan to do some poker lessons with the Royal Flush Girls(aka Prestigious Models). Then it was down to Atlantic City to play the WPT Borgata. Finally the month would conclude with a trip back to Virginia to see my family and do some health checkups. Something unexpected happened in the midst of all this that leaves me re-evaluating everything.

The couple days getting to know the Prestigious Models in their Manhattan headquarters was fun. I got to see a bit of the city for the first time, tagged along for a hot photo shoot and finally checked out my friend Phil Galfond’s custom condo with the metal slide going into the living room. I tried to get into a 10/25 or 25/50 private game but apparently my reputation had made it to NY before me. On the last day I sat down with four of the Royal Flush Girls(Michelle, Katrina, Melyssa, Melanie) for a lesson on some of the basics of poker. We had a good time. My favorite parts where Melyssa calling UTG “Gun in the Holster” and everyone getting annoyed when Melanie became the chip leader. They got quite competitive with each other. They learned a bit about position, bet-sizing, drawy vs. rainbow board texture, how to make a good poker face and most importantly they got an idea of how complex and challenging the game is. I was looking forward to hanging out with them more in A.C.

That evening we drove down to Atlantic City in a rented soccer mom minivan for the WPT Borgata which was starting the next day. I checked in with my roommate Adam Jungleon who I had become friends with this summer after finding out that he too is an amputee. I joined Vanessa Selbst for dinner and a bit of cash games before heading to my room to crash. Back at the room, Adam was in his bed and groaning due to stomach pains. I went downstairs to buy him some Peptobismol.

On the way there was a smudge of water on the floor that went unnoticed and in an instant I had crashed to the floor in sitting position. The pain in my residual leg that followed was unlike any experienced before. It was deep, intense and unrelenting. Security wheeled to my room where after an hour of tossing in my bed I called them back to take me to the emergency room.

From 4am until the afternoon doctors moved at the speed of snails to figure out what was wrong with me. The X-ray looked normal so the doctor tried to prescribe me Motrin for a sprain. I insisted on more testing. A CAT scan showed that not only had I fractured my hip at the top of the femur, but that there was a tumor there eroding the bone. It was likely that my cancer had grown back. The heaviness of this news laid on my mind for hours as I waited for my stepdad to make the 6-hour trip to take me to my hospital in Virginia.

During this time, day 1A of the WPT Borgata main event had started. Adam Jungleon woke up to find my prosthesis and cell phone in the room but not me. My phone was charging far away from my bed and I had been in too much pain to make the journey across the room. I had considered waking him but he was already feeling sick earlier and had to play the tournament in the morning. Needless to say, he was concerned to find a girl’s prosthetic leg and no girl. Where could she have possibly gone? He asked around but everyone was equally clueless.

During the afternoon I got a phone call from Barry Greenstein who was in Europe for the WSOPE. He was relieved to have finally found me and from that the world spread that I was still alive. Adam Pliska who is a good friend and the WPT president brought my phone to the hospital. He and Kim Loan, another good friend and the agent of the R.F.G. kept me company in the E.R. while until my stepdad arrived….

…to be continued.

-There is a lot to write and this post is long enough so I will have part 2 up shortly. It will be about my hospital stay in Virginia, hip surgery, diagnosis, emotional impact and my plans from here on out. It’s intense. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and support.