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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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.

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