Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Not much to report this month. My M-protein level—a proxy for the level of cancerous plasma cells in my bone marrow—is down from 0.48 in February to 0.43 in March. That’s not a big drop, but it’s a drop, and anything moving in the right direction is good news. Apparently the evil dex is reluctantly doing its job.

FWIW, there are other markers besides M-protein that I haven’t been sharing because they’re all basically OK and haven’t changed much. For example, we routinely measure something call Kappa light chains, and it’s been at a nice low level ever since the first round of chemotherapy. Ditto for my IgG immunoglobulin levels. (There are three types of immunoglobulins corresponding to three different types of multiple myeloma. I have the G version.) This is all good news. If we can just get the basic level of cancerous cells down close to zero, I’ll be in pretty good shape. In fact, it’s even possible that the slow response of the M-protein level is a positive thing, since it would be expected if I have a very slow-moving version of multiple myeloma. That’s just speculation at this point since there’s no way of knowing, but it fits the evidence so far.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate