By an amazing coincidence, half an hour after I griped about not being allowed to see my test results, they popped up on my screen. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, I guess. Unfortunately, the news is disappointing:

Instead of stabilizing at around 0.5, my M-protein level took a big jump up to 0.67. That’s too bad. I had hoped that the Darzalex by itself would be effective since it has no side effects.¹ But this means that either I’ll have to start up again on the dex or else add something else to the mix. I’ll find out when I see my oncologist in a couple of weeks.

What I’d really like to do is to try starting up the dex again, but using it only once a month on the same day as the rest of the chemo. Unfortunately, my doctor is not fond of “trying” things. He prefers to precisely follow the treatment used in the clinical tests of the Darzalex. But I’ll ask anyway and see what he says. This is the first time that I’ve thought I’d like to get an opinion from a multiple myeloma specialist, but I’m not even sure how to go about that.

¹As opposed to the dex, which saps my energy and ruins my sleep. It’s now been several months since I quit the dex, and it’s amazing how much better I feel.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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