Coley's Toxins IV #14 - Another good fever.

Today's fever was another good one. She stayed above 102.2F for a good 2 hours.

The fever curve was quite similar to fever #2. The maximum temperature was 103.6F (39.8C). However, you'll notice that it took a little longer to reach its peak. However, once reached, it seemed to stay up there a little longer than recent fevers.

Observations for today's fever:

1. Chills lasted for about 20 minutes but were very mild
2. The dry cough was even less than fever #13. It occurred only when she would lay on her side. And even so, they were sparse. Could it be that it's resolving??
3. She had some numbness and sensitivity in her left hand today -- more so than previous fevers.
4. She had a dull headache (mainly center front) and also a transient sharp pain in the back of her head (left side). These are were quite minor (in terms of intensity).

Other than that, I would classify today's a robust fever, with weak chills. Lasted on the longer side at relatively high temperatures.

OK to eat during fever?

The MBVax protocol warns not to eat before Coley's, as well as during the chill phase. I need to check again, but my impression was not to eat during fever as well. It would make sense too, since digestion would probably be impaired during fever.

Well, today we decided to experiment a bit. Whenever she gets Coley's, she doesn't get to eat lunch. And today's Coley's started dripping at around 12:45pm. So, by 4:00pm, she was pretty hungry. Thus, even though she had just reached a high temperature of 103.6F (today's peak), I decided to let her eat a little fruit. We went slow and she had no problems. No nausea. Eventually, she probably ate a full cup of fruit (grapes, canteloupe, papaya). Later on, I gave her a cookie to eat as well.

Interesting observation regarding dilution

Coley's Toxins has to be diluted before being administered intravenously. Today, the Coley's Toxins vial was almost empty. It probably had 0.2ml left, of which 0.1ml was removed, and then diluted. We noticed that it seems a little darker red (more concentrated). This could happen if the vial is not shaken thoroughly each time before extraction. This would result in the remnant solution becoming more and more concentrated. Therefore, even though we kept at 0.009ml, we probably got more than that today.

Possible reactivation of old injuries by Coley's Toxins

We've heard from MBVax that they've observed Coley's reactivating "old injuries". Secondly, the doctors here at Issels believe that Coley's mobilizes toxins and possibly any remnant chemo from the body. They believe it is very important to have a good sweat during/after Coley's (in order to get rid of these toxins).

Well today, we observed something reminiscent of a side effect from chemo 2 years ago. Chemo caused callouses to develop on her fingers, and also some skin peeling. Today, before Coley's started, she observed some of that on her left thumb. She doesn't think it's due to soap because it's only on the left thumb and not on any of the other fingers. A few hours after the fever, she observed little bumps on the thumb. These are all pretty minor, but still noteworthy.