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Atezolizumab (anti-PDL1 immunotherapy) + FOLFIRI (Chemotherapy) + Avastin (biological anti-VEGF therapy) Infusion #1
My choice of the above witch’s brew of therapies was explained in the previous “Going Off-Roading”
post and I stick by it. Each component has an important role to play both medically as well as scientifically to try to synergistically maximize the chances of a successful immunological response. Logistics & realism also played important roles in treatment design.
What happened while I was infused with the above concoction?
Nothing. Well nothing beyond the standard FOLFIRI infusion. Some acute nausea – but aside from that, the atezo immunotherapy infusion (everyone uses that abbreviation because the drug name is both impossible to say and spell – why do they have to do that?!?) might as well as have been water. I went home & went to bed at about 7 PM.
But then something happened…
aside from 3-4 one-hour respites,
I slept for the next 24 hours straight! Now
that
was interesting.
That had never happened in an infusion before taking atezo! Like a dutiful scientist, I started up a scientific lab notebook to fully & accurately record the detailed side effects. I saw this as part of going off-roading in my treatment, partially for my own safety sake.
The second day after infusion (the day after the one I lost to continuous sleep)
something even more interesting happened
.
I woke up that day to
intense pain
(about an 8-9 on the pain scale). Opiates did nothing to stop it. It was just as bad as when I was bedridden with pain last spring due to intense pain in my lymph node tumor mass.
Now the interesting part: It was
localized
