Ten Years After

About ten years ago, I had a minor bout of cancer. One of the treatments for this was radiation. I spent three weeks having a good portion of my mid-section being shot through at each session with enough radiation to power my entire block for a week (or so said the rad tech when I asked just how much radiation I was receiving).

One of the results of this treatment was that my body developed an extremely negative reflex to eggs. THAT was a real bummer. I loved eggs. Soft eggs on toast; scrambled eggs with all kinds of goodies in them; eggs Benedict; and especially eggs and hash browns and sausage and ketchup all mixed together. But with this reaction, I wasn't able to eat them no how, no way. It was so bad, in fact, that one accidental bite of an egg breakfast sandwich (I was on a plane heading to Chicago to interview at my prospective seminary and didn't realize the thing had an egg on it) caused me to immediately require the use of the restroom. I'm talking IMMEDIATELY here.

I made the decision that I could live without eggs. So for the last ten years, I've been egg free. "Hi, my name is Rev Ref and I've been egg-less for ten years."

I'm not quite sure how it came up, but while at my mom & dad's over Christmas, I allowed myself to have a few eggs. You can guess that I didn't die; but neither did I become violently ill.

So, this morning, I fixed myself a couple of eggs on toast. They were yummy. And I didn't get sick. This is a good thing.

I'll start slowly at first, don't want to shock the system. After all, it's been ten years. I can't wait for that plate of eggs, hash browns, sausage and ketchup.