It Might Get Messy

For some reason, in the 70s and 80s, we (by which I mean “systems ecologists”) were shocked and awed to learn that biology was just as hierarchical as the rest of the universe. Man, we were mesmerized. Books, papers, presentations, beer-and-pizza nights, were devoted by the jillions to hierarchy theory. We just couldn’t get enough of the organism/environment interaction from molecules to organelles to cells to organs, organisms, and up the chain to the biosphere. 


The whole thing turned out to be sort of illusory—it was kind of a “fun while it lasted but not going anywhere” path, a rather masturbatory experience. The only person who made real headway was a guy named Conrad at Wayne State University, of all places. He published a fabulous book, in which he laid out a series of equations that linked ecology and evolution at all levels from molecule to biosphere. It was a work of art. Far as I know, he published one other book and is still at Wayne State. He was the one person who jumped on hierarchy theory and rode that horse somewhere helpful. 


The only thing I got out of it ultimately was a quirky chapter in my dissertation. I took Conrad’s equations and re-wrote them to describe the ecology and evolution of chigger mites. It was a fabulous chapter. I submitted it as a speculative manuscript to a journal editor. He said “well, this is pretty cool, but I can only publish it if you take all those damn equations out of it.” And since the equations were pretty much the entire point of the piece, that didn’t make any sense. So it lived and died in my dissertation. 


I just went back and looked at it. It still looks pretty cool to me. But I can see why the guy didn’t want to publish it. It really doesn’t go anywhere.


General theory on cancer is that it is a rigorously Darwinian phenomenon. Eukaryote (for the non-scientists out there, eukaryotes are higher organisms—like human beings, for example) cells arose as cooperative colonies of multiple species of prokaryotes (which are simpler cells, like bacteria). It is generally accepted now that the cells that make up human beings are composed of multiple kinds of bacteria-like things that came together to form the cells themselves. Yeah, you heard that right. Our cells originated via cooperation among microbes that form the nucleus, flagella, cilia, mitochondria, and other parts. It seems perfectly logical to me that competition among cells would be an ongoing thing. Cancer cells are doing their Darwinian thing successfully. They “win”. 


Only for a short time, of course. But evolution is messy. Many diseases and parasites miss their mark and kill their host, which, if you are an evolving pathogen, is a dead-end path for you. But cancers come in many forms. Viruses, bacteria, pieces of DNA, pieces of RNA, other structural forms, are all potential escape routes for cancers. And they are being actively explored and exploited by various kinds of cancers. It turns out that several kinds of childhood leukemia result from delayed responses to infections. These cancers have already bypassed the cellular dead-end trap. They’re at large in the world, trolling for victims.


I’m back in the hospital now after having had a week off from the two-a-day radiations and once-a-week-all-day chemotherapy infusion. I didn’t heal as much in that week as I thought I might. The third-degree radiation burns on my tongue got better, but the nasty third-degree-er at the corner of my mouth just scabbed over. So I’m still not able to actually eat. I managed a couple tablespoons of ice cream the other day, and a splodge of instant chocolate pudding. BUT. I told you this place, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, is the best, right? My insurance company balked at paying for food and feeding hardware for me. Somehow, the nurses here got a waiver. Now I own one of these cool poles on wheels and a bunch of IV bags I can load up with liquid food and let it drain itself into my GIT. Here’s a shot of my United Nations Refugee Camp food supply. The stuff’s not bad. Which I only know because even if you dump it directly into your gut, you still burp it… .

Apologies for that. I’m guessing that was too much detail for most of you. But what the hell, since we’re on a roll here. First, here’s a shot of “dinner” ready to eat.

Here’s a photo of the feeding apparatus in “travel size” mode—skip the bag and pole, just dump the stuff into a 60 ml syringe.

And here’s the actual portal-to-my-gut. Behind the gauze pad, the pipe runs right into my stomach. 

Oddly, I can’t feel anything in there, either by palpating or during peristalsis. I’ll have to ask the surgeon what the internal plumbing is like. He’s gonna hack out the tumor remnants a couple months after the radiation/chemotherapy torture is halted for good. Everyone seems confident he’ll be able to clean up the mess and the prognosis remains good. 


Anyway, I haven’t been having much trouble from the chemo, at least in the nausea department. It DOES leave me intensely tired and weak, and the weakness went away during the week off. The nurse says I should feel pretty good this week, because it takes a week for the rad and chemo to catch back up and start to slash-and-burn. I hope so. At the moment, things hurt but not like hell. I could use another week before I get back to the pits of Dante.


I’ve got new material to go up across the board, so check all the sites along with this one:
http://theresaturtleinmysoup.blogspot.com/
http://sustainablebiospheredotnet.blogspot.com/
http://docviper.livejournal.com/


Thanks everyone. I much appreciate the support and I’m pleased you stopped by. With a little luck, I’ll be back in the kitchen soon, cranking out the appetizers. Can’t wait!!!