Health update

Test Ticker

Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

December is make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We have a $350,000 goal that we simply cannot afford to miss. And in "No Cute Headlines or Manipulative BS," we explain, as matter-of-fact as we can, how being a nonprofit means everything to us. Bottom line: Donations big and small make up 74 percent of our budget this year and are urgently needed this month, and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we hit our goal. Please pitch in if you can right now.

December is make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and in "No Cute Headlines or Manipulative BS," we hope that giving it to you as matter-of-fact as we can will work to raise the $350,000 we need to raise this month. Donations make up 74 percent of our budget this year, and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we hit our goal.

This month brings us yet another health update. Short summary: everything is fine. My immune system has recovered and all my other counts are in the normal range. I’ve been off the dex for two months and off the sleeping meds for the past week (after tapering off for a month). I still have some residual fatigue from my monthly infusion of the primary chemo drug, but it’s not too bad.

As for the multiple myeloma itself, the latest test shows that my cancer load is slightly up from last month:

This is nothing to worry about. We expected the number to go up a bit after I stopped the dex, and 0.36 is still lower than the readings I had for two years on the old medication. As long as the M-protein number flattens out below 0.5, I’m doing great.