Lymph Journal # 26

2/5/2012

I recently realized that I no longer have a butt.  Losing all the weight that I have over the past year I know it had to come from somewhere.  I’ve watched as subcutaneous layers of excess lipid materials have thinned uniformly all over the place.  For many a month this seemed like such a good thing – remember I was trying to make this happen.  I was pleased to see the belt cinch into holes successively closer to the buckle.  My colleagues would remark on the one or two occasions when I did not have a salad for lunch.  I often passed up a donut on BFA’s Thursday donut day (those from BFA know of what I speak, others can only imagine but “homemade” is a key word).  Oh boy, pride does ever goeth before a fall!

But the butt has always been there in its proportional measure.  It served as a cushion for hard seats, a contour on which to hang my pants, and a measure (via a sort of firmness index) of the degree of slope that I had to negotiate walking home from work.  Things get pretty toned when you live on one of Kandern’s steeper hills and walk to work.  (This sounds like a case of TMI yet it’s an aspect of this disease that you might want to realize and understand.)  But all that is now moot.  Apart from loosing fat there has been a gross wastage of muscle mass and that is sobering.  Under treatment it seems to have been arrested – this is good news and my weight has become fairly stable. 

I’ve always sort of wondered why cancer is often related to weight loss.  Following are just a few snippets from various websites that begin to explain when to be concerned with weight loss and a little bit about the whys and the hows. 

When To See Your Doctor About Weight Loss  Generally, you should see your doctor if you have lost 5 percent of your body weight within six months or less and have done so without modifying your diet or exercising. Your doctor may ask you several questions to help identify why you are losing weight.http://cancer.about.com/od/glossary/a/weight_loss.htm

I haven’t used this blog to offer medical advice but that’s advice worth considering.  The more formal name for cancer related weight loss is “cachexia”.  Here are a few preliminary blurbs on that:

Cachexia (kak-ex-ee-a) comes from the Greek word kakos meaning 'bad' and hexis meaning 'condition'. Anorexia just means loss of appetite and is often associated with cachexia, but not always. Cachexia is more than simply loss of appetite though. It is a very complex problem involving changes in the way your body normally uses protein, carbohydrate, and fat. It leads to many problems including muscle wasting.

http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.org/coping-with-cancer/coping-physically/diet/about/types-of-diet-problems

Lymphokines  According to a September 2010 review in the "Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle," 60 to 80 percent of cancer patients eventually suffer from significant weight loss. The precise mechanisms for cancer cachexia are unclear, but scientists at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center believe that substances called lymphokines -- molecules produced by the tumor or by your immune system in response to the tumor -- exert systemic influences that cause all paraneoplastic syndromes, including weight loss. Many lymphokines accelerate the breakdown of fat and muscle and interfere with protein synthesis, even in the face of adequate nutrition.  http://www.livestrong.com/article/447860-rapid-weight-loss-lymphoma/

Anyway, I thought I’d share this all and just add – whatever your feelings are toward your own aft anatomy – it can be the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to cancer.  Certainly the Christian perspective on spiritual gifting uses the insight that all the parts of the body are worthy – they all have their place.  If you find yourself missing the stern-most portion, well, see your doctor and be careful your pants don’t fall down. (Not necessarily in that order but ASAP in either case.)