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The longer my mystery disease remains a mystery, the more annoying and intrusive the tests become as we keep trying to figure out what’s wrong. I’ll be out all day today for yet another one. I should be back Tuesday, but if not, I’ll be back on Wednesday for sure.

LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: Well, everything went fine. Today’s festivities involved running a catheter up one of my veins into my heart to check out the pressure in various chambers. It turns out that my pressure is A-OK.

So we’re back where we started. After an astonishing battery of tests, we’ve concluded that my lung volume is excellent; I don’t suffer from asthma; I’m inhaling plenty of oxygen; exhaling plenty of CO2; my blood is fully oxygenated; I have no blood clots; no interstitial damage; and no apparent inflammation; there are no holes in my heart; nor any shunts; my ejection volume is terrific; and my arteries—much to my surprise—appear to be as wide open as the Amazon river.

In other words, I’m getting loads of oxygen, and my heart is distributing it properly to the rest of my body. I am the picture of cardiopulmonary health.

Except that I have a hard time breathing.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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