Time for a Re-check

It's been over 10 months since I got the No Bacon Death Sentence (tm), and today I went for the blood test that will tell me whether or not my alpha gal number has receded and possibly be at zero.  I should know within the next week what the results are, and I've got my fingers crossed and a frying pan at the ready.

During my visit to the allergist yesterday, we discussed what re-testing actually means.  She told me that quite honestly, she felt like she could never tell anyone that they were home free to go back to their carnivorous ways, because the medical community was still learning about the whackadooiness of this disease.

The biggest problem is that it doesn't have a readily repeatable reaction for everyone.  For some people, they can eat bacon every day for weeks and have no reaction.  Then, on Day X, they have a severe anaphylactic reaction that requires the Epipen or two, a trip to the emergency room, etc.  There are folks who can't even smell meat cooking without having an issue.

I'm kind of on the fence about it, because part of me cannot wait to have steak...especially since I've been hanging out in the Great Midwest for quite a bit of this year, and it's hard to get away from beef and pork when you are there.  On my last trip to South Dakota, I ate the Ruby Tuesdays salad bar twice because I couldn't find a local place that served anything exciting in the poultry range.

I would look at the menus online for the local joints, and they would have PAGES of steak and pork options, and then there were the 3 chicken items:  1) grilled chicken salad, 2) grilled chicken breast and some vegetable, and 3) some chicken pasta, usually alfredo and probably had bacon thrown in for good measure.  Bah. 

The other part of me is continually wondering if I really could eat meat again and be okay. Or, will I always have that worry in the back of my head that this might be the pork chop that sends me to the hospital?

Back to the allergist. So, if the test comes back with encouraging results, she said we could do a controlled ingestion test in the office and see what happens...that means I get to eat some meat and have them watch me to see if I go into anaphylaxis.  I have already decided that if we get to that stage, I am NOT going to drag in some fast food monstrosity...if I am going down, I am going down with something AMAZINGLY tasty.  It might be the very last time I get to eat it, and it better be worthy of living on in memory.  I'm thinking something along the lines of those brontosaurus ribs that Fred Flintstone gets in the opening credits of The Flintstones. 

Yabba.  Dabba.  Doo.