Jason & Susan

Yesterday was our friend Fen’s birthday and we celebrated over Papa John’s pizza delivery. Papa John is probably the best tasting pizza in town and Susan’s been craving for their Mexican Ole for a long time. The last time she had Papa John’s was maybe half a year ago. But this is nothing compared to Jason — 20 years ago!! Since he was diagnosed with wheat allergies at the age of 6, (that in addition to tomatoes and milk/cheese), he’s had very restricted diet. Italian food is completely out of the question!

Growing up in America, pizza is like the staple food for birthday parties, school parties, and movie nights. Jason would always feel left out because he couldn’t eat and enjoy like everybody else. He would watch the other kids eat, envious and wishing he was born of a different immune system, until the last slice was gone every piece of fallen topping eaten.

One day when he was ten and his parents were gone, he couldn’t take it anymore. He dialed Dominoe’s pizza delivery and ordered a pepperoni pizza, paying with a bucket of quarters and dimes he had saved. Within minutes, he gobbled down the entire pizza, enjoying every moment of decadence, until the itching fit began. He shredded the pizza box destroying any evidence that might implicate him, and for the rest of the night, his body was on fire. He wanted to peel off his entire skin but he couldn’t say anything lest he get in trouble. Going through his mind, was that pizza worth it? Yes and no. And that was the last time he had pizza…

… until last night! Bill (Fen’s husband) ordered too much food and the pizza was calling out Jason’s name. He looked with drooling eyes and could not resist anymore. It was a test to see exactly how effective the traditional chinese medicine (TCM) had been working in his system. He’d been seeing a TCM doctor for the last half a year, hoping that perhaps chinese medicine might cure him of his allergies. We were told that TCM is slow and might take several months to see results, if any. So Jason decided to give TCM a try for one year. Jason was the best patient any TCM doctor would want. He was very diligent and never missed an appointment or intake. Every morning and evening, he drank a glass full of tar black liquid that smelled like sewage water. Toxic smell would perforate through his pores and for the next 10 minutes or so, Susan would not go near him.

It’s been about half a year and Jason was very good about following his dietary restrictions. The last few weeks, his skin had shown great improvement and he was no longer having uncontrollable itching fits at night (happens even without eating off-limit food). So he started cheating a little bit here and there, starting with soy sauce. Most people don’t know that 99.9% of soy sauce have wheat flour and even the smallest amount of food cooked with soy sauce bothered him in the past. If he was going to start testing food, soy sauce would be the place to start since it’s got the smallest amount of wheat concentratation. His body did react to the soy sauce intake, but the effects were minimal. His fingers and toes itched a little bit but that was about it.

Last week at church was communion Sunday and he was planning to take his first real communion in years. The tiny bit of cracker is a bigger step and he wanted to see what would happen. He was playing the piano and when the tray was about to be passed to him, the usher realized he was allergic to wheat and walked away with the tray before Jason could say anything. Oh well. Next time.

Last night, as Jason watched everybody enjoy Papa John’s pizza, he finally gave in. Why not just take a bigger step and see what happens. A slice would be too much so he decided to have a bite, a big one that is. He took the biggest bite out of Susan’s Mexican Ole slice he could possibly fit in his mouth, savoring every ounce of tomato sauce that oozed in his mouth, the elasticity of wheat-gluten (very different from rice or spelt flour), and the chewiness of half melted cheese. The bite of heaven lasted for about two minutes. And as to the rest of the evening? His body itched a little but it was not the same uncontrollable itching fit he used to have. Oh, he should have ate the entire slice!!!

Next time…