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I visited my oncologist this morning and got the latest reading of my M-protein level. Basically, it’s stable: 0.61 last month, 0.58 this month. I know you all want this in chart form, so here it is.

The bad news is that this is higher than we’d like. (We’d like it to be about 0.01.) The good news is that it corresponds to a pretty low level of cancerous cells in my bone marrow. Probably around 3-4 percent, which isn’t high enough to affect me in any serious way. If my maintenance med keeps me at this level, I could pretty much live forever. And the side effects have been pleasantly minimal. I feel fine in almost all respects.

Still, if it’s really working well, it would get my M-protein level lower. So how long should I keep taking it before we start to think about alternative treatments? I tried once again to dredge an opinion out of my doctor, and as usual I failed. So I have no idea. I’ll just keep taking this stuff forever as long as my levels remain under control.

On the other good news front, my back pain is finally almost completely gone. I still need to be careful, but this means I can start doing exercise more strenuous than walking. Hooray!

On a related front, I have a piece in the latest issue of the magazine. I don’t know when it will go online, but you should buy a paper copy anyway. You know how teen magazines like Tiger Beat feature posters of teen idols? Well, the current issue of Mother Jones has one of me. Seriously. If you want a nearly life-size picture of my head to put on your refrigerator—and who doesn’t?—just tear out page 26. It’s only $6.99.1 Buy one for all your friends.

1Which is actually pretty steep, isn’t it? Why not subscribe instead for 12 bucks a year? Or give gift subscriptions to all your loved ones? Or, if you already subscribe, donate some money to us. It’s tax deductible and it goes to a good cause!

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And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist 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 need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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