Aged Meat

We have to wait a month for the results of the muscle biopsy.  At first, I brushed it off to the thought of so many diseases to consider.  I then deliberated that there must be such a limited number of specialists trained in the pathology of muscle diseases.  They have a backlog of patients, and no way of every getting more than a month behind in work.

And then I remembered.

Aging meat takes three to four weeks for the enzymatic processes.  There are structural changes in the muscle fibers after a month.  Previously, I only knew about this from hunters and high-end steak houses.  A small portion of my own child's leg muscle currently ages.  While this realization doesn't negate the first two thoughts I had, it does creep me out.  Not that I am squeamish - oh, no.  It's my child, not a deer or a side of beef.  Part of his muscle needed to change in this way to show the pathologist the damage or the abnormality.  I am unnerved for the seriousness of the test.  A needle biopsy would have been easier, if less appropriate for the conditions we suspect.  Not only would it have been easier physically on him, but easier on us mentally.

We will know soon enough the results of the muscle biopsy.  It is only one short month.  But, forever more I'll know that a small piece of his leg muscle was aged.  I may never eat at a high-end steak house again, even if I could one day afford it.  It would only remind me of this waiting time.