We had brought a large body-sized far-infrared heating pad to warm her, as well as smaller one for her chest. I kept her under blankets and turned up the room thermostat to 80F. We did this to take the edge of the chills and shakes, as well as to reduce energy requirements by the body to raise core temperature.
(The picture below is of the far infra-red heating pad in black, covered with towels, that we used to pre-warm the body)
Today, we increased the dosage from 0.0005mL by 50% to 0.00075mL. Those of you familiar with the MBVax protocol will note that this is still less than the typical starting dose of 0.001mL. The reason why we're treading cautiously is from previous experience with various drugs and chemo. She just tends to react quite strongly to typical dosages (even those adjusted for body weight).
She was rather tired over the weekend. The Issels doctors prescribed IV protein + Magnesium to replenish her (a CBC done on Saturday morning showed that her protein levels had dropped to 5.8 g/dL (normal minimum being 6.0). The doctor had already predicted it may happen before the CBC was done. The doctor said that drops in protein levels may happen when you have fevers.
Looking back at today's treatment, we concluded that we have been too aggressive with the heating pads. In our enthusiasm to avoid the chills and shakes that Coley's induces, we've been aggressively pre-heating her to the extent that she began sweating profusely even before the fever started.
Today, we stuck with the same 0.0005mL CFIV dosage. We expected that there may not be any fever today because we're using the same dosage as past Monday's. If you remember, Monday's fever broke past the 102.5F barrier for only 15 minutes. Furthermore, the body is supposed to get more tolerant to Coleys so one would expect a lower fever than expected this time.
