Good news! I got my latest lab results today, and my M-protein level has increased only slightly since last month:

It’s hard to see in the chart, but this is an increase of only 0.05, half of the 0.1 increase in each of the past two months. This suggests (knock wood) that the Darzalex on its own is working adequately and the rise in my cancer load is starting to flatten out. If it does end up flattening in the 0.5-6 range, everything will be fine and I won’t have to start up the Evil Dex again.

On a related note, I have this number today because I’ve been in the infusion center all morning. I asked one of the nurses if she could change the date for my next set of tests, but she misheard me and thought I wanted my current test results. When she gave them to me, they included the M-protein number.

Normally it takes me a while to get that. My first oncologist said it was impossible for the online system to deliver M-protein test results, but this was just a straight-up lie. My current oncologist, in what passes for candor among doctors, admits that he has to release it before I can see it, but says it’s because the IT folks have set it up this way. This is also a lie, of course, since IT would never want or be given that authority. It’s obvious that the doctors themselves have decided to withhold certain test results until they’ve seen them, but they don’t want to admit that. I sort of understand why, but it still grates. I paid for the tests, after all.

But enough griping. These test results are pretty good, and I hope for more good news next month.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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