Objective 35: Describe the formation and flow of lymph

I can not say it enough but I hate the lymphatic system. The textbook was my guide in learning that lymph originates as plasma, which is the fluid portion of blood. The arterial blood that flows out of the heart slows as it moves through a capillary bed (see figure above). This slowing allows some plasma to leave the arterioles and flow into the tissues where it becomes extracellular fluid, This  fluid delivers nutrients, oxygen, and hormones to the cells. As this fluid leaves the cells, it takes with it cellular waste products and protein cells. Approximately 90 percent of this tissue fluid flows into the venules. Here it enters the venous circulation as plasma and continues in the circulatory system. The remaining 10 percent of the fluid that is left behind is now known as lymph.  The bloodstream is pumped by the heart. It circulates throughout the body and is cleansed by being filtered by the kidneys. The lymphatic system does not have a pump to aid in its flow, instead this system is designed so that lymph only flows upward through the body traveling from the hands and feet and upward through the body toward the neck.  As it travels through the body, lymph passes through lymph nodes where it is filtered. At the base of the neck, the lymph enters the subclavian veins and once again becomes plasma in the bloodstream.