Friday, June 17, 2005

Enemas & Breastfeeding

So, besides my preoccupation with Charlie, and making his last days special, what else is going on?

Um, not much. That is pretty much my number one priority.

I was kind of dismayed to hear that Pauly is getting run ragged. It happens. It is just a horrible, exhausting job to do tourney reporting. The pay is non-existent and most players complain about everything that is written.

So in my warped, illogical mind, I volunteered to help out Pauly when I return to Vegas. My first priority remains to get the top players to call Charlie, but I will definitely try to give Pauly a bit of a break.

Am I insane for doing this when I had such a bad experience last year with the WPPA? Yeah, probably. But at least no one promised me the world if I took on this task. I have been made no promises, and will not ask for anything, other than a media pass to be able to get the ice and water I need for my protein shakes that are available readily in the media room.
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In more "news of the weird," I have found a group of angels who want to come to my rescue.

As many of you know, my immune system is severely compromised. That makes it harder for me to stay strong while playing poker and/or running around many hours per day. I have to rest frequently, and sometimes I feel just plain exhausted.

So, one day I got a message from the wife of a player. She runs Mother's Milk Home Lactation Services, a private In-Home Lactation Support Company.

She asked if I'd heard or read the reports about cancer trials that had to do with cancer cells being attacked by (of all things) breast milk. Yes, HUMAN breast milk! She passed along some reports that she'd been sent, along with some studies about adult humans with compromised immune systems being greatly benefited by breast milk. Mostly the patients were going through chemo and had low labs, or were in the final stages of AIDS.

I had a V-8 moment. Of course breast milk would have immuno building properties. Think about it. Babies have infant immune systems themselves and need to be built up.

She also told me that she'd attended a conference, and that they showed breast milk cells under a microscope literally attacking and subduing cancer cells! Nice.

If I hadn't been so preoccupied, I might have thought of this myself.

Okay, so at any rate, she asked me if I would be willing to try breast milk therapy. Supposedly it is being prescribed to cancer/chemo patients as well as ailing AIDS patients. Most insurance companies will not cover the milk, because it is considered "experimental," but many patients get it anyway, although it is about $4 per OUNCE.

She said that she had some clients whose mother's had succumbed to breast cancer, and that they were excited and more than willing to "donate" their breast milk to me, if I would pay for shipping.

She thought I might be grossed out by the thought of drinking breast milk, but she couldn't have been more wrong. Shoot, I am the one going around trying to talk the bloggers into trying an alcohol enema so they can tell me what it's like, lol ;)

So the timing of this experiment couldn't have been more funny. I was playing in the Stud 8 event on Wednesday and who walks up? Tami, with breast milk in tow. I almost had her whip it out right there in front of the table so that I could take a swig, but in the end I decided to have pity on those poor, poker creatures who don't know how crazy I am.

Naw, to be completely truthful, I just wanted to make sure I could tolerate it and didn't hurl it on the table at them, haha!

So during the break we were in the hall, and I decided to give it a swig. Tami was right, breast milk is much more mellow and good tasting than cow's milk. I kept it down with no problem.

John Juanda and Barry Greenstein came over while I was chugging the milk, but neither of them asked what the heck I was drinking. John needed to talk to me about Charlie. I guess I gave him the wrong number in all of my confusion on the first day.

Anyway, now I'm a baby again, drinking breast milk. If I was a lesbian, I'd try to get some poor woman to let me breastfeed naturally, lol.

Felicia :)