Chemo-Round 1

I got to the office at 10:00 for blood work and walked out at 1:00 feeling surprisingly normal and upbeat despite all of the precautions and negative "possibilities" floating around in my brain.  I got a one-on-one walk-through with the most important paper work and then two pieces of literature to peruse at my leisure with basically the same stuff but not quite as terse.  Can you believe the nurse used the term "an easy read"?  By the way I have a great oncology nurse.  Experienced, knowledgeable, direct and practical.....my kind of medical personnel.  Once I was hooked up and left with my own thoughts I decided that some positive imagery couldn't hurt.  I imagined that those drugs were sending out "pacman" troops to gobble up any stray cancer cells that might be out there.  I know pac-man dates me but what can I say?  That image really works for me.  My troops will also be known as "pac-ers" and "pac-ettes".....Go Team!   I haven't experienced any nausea yet (and don't plan to) but just in case I will imagine that it is just the troops all stopping to do "the wave" at the same time causing a little bit of  upheaval in the gastric area.  One of the questions I asked was that other than 100% chance of hair loss are there chemo patients who don't experience any of the other symptoms and she said "Why yes there are."  So I plan to take that route whenever possible and opt out of most side effects.  The other thing I asked about was exercise and she said go for it every chance you get, do what you would normally do as often as you can.  Fatigue does not have to run the show.  So once I got home I did my usual hour on the elliptical and hope I can get outside to walk the rest of the week.  My surgeon still hasn't released me to do more exercise than that, but I'm hoping for the best on Friday when I see him for my almost 6-week check-in.  I go back to the chemo unit tomorrow morning for an injection that will help keep up my white blood count. This leaves me alone with my thoughts for the next two weeks.  I am ordinarily not a person who pays much attention to small aches and pains, but it's kind of weird now paying such close attention to how I am feeling.  I am resisting the urge to make an Excel spreadsheet to try and keep track of everything.  Those who know me are no doubt smiling at that one.  Keep smiling kids, I need those vibes.  By the way, I have to change chemo to Wednesdays because of my doctor not being there on Tuesdays to check me out, so I don't know if I should change my blog title or not or if I can.  I've kind of gotten attached to this one.  What do you think?