July 18th -- Chemotherapy Day 1

I have officially started Chemo! I went in this AM and met with the nurse practitioner to discuss the schedule. I then went to the "Chemo room" and hung out with all of my new pals for a round of fluids followed by a super strong diuretic they call Lasix (not to be confused with the eye surgery) I was suppsed to urinate 400cc before they started me on the Cysplatin, so I went over the top and did about 1.2 liters!!
The entire drip fest into my catheter lasted about 4 hours and I felt fine most of the time. I ate like a pig and probably disgusted a lot of the later stage patients around me. Hopefully I did not exacerbate anyone's nausea! Sarah brought cookies to the nurses and I was pretty chipper compared to everyone else in the place. We shall see if this lasts.
I met a great guy Mike, who is in a similar situation to myself and is having four rounds of BEP (in comparison to my two) he has a bit of additional activity in his chest cavity, he seems to be keeping his head up and I think he will do great. I also briefly met "Becka" who seemed to be later in a round of chemo and was really exhausted. She had already lost her hair and seemed pretty exhausted. Bothe Mike and Becka seemed to be pretty close to me in age and I sincerely hope the best for them in their treatments. Mike and I have decided to watch office space on my laptop tomorrow to pass the time and escape . . .
I got home around two in the afternoon and started to feel my first pangs of nausea and fatigue. I took a great nap and woke up energized for dinner at around 7 PM. Energized is relative, I suppose, since it took me about 20 minutes to get out of bed with the initial bad hangover feeling that followed my nap. Dinner was a great meal prepared by or fantastic friends, the Conaghans. Again, I am humbled by the generosity of our friends and appreciate all of the help! Interestingly, the smell seemed good, but I was unable to taste as well as usual-- I still have a mild metallic taste in my mouth from something in the treatments today. I have had a mild headache all afternoon/evening, but am treating this with Tylenol-- all is good.
I did not ride the bike today, but I feel happy that I was able to listen to my body and get the rest that I obviously needed this afternoon.

One day closer to cured!