Laurie Kingston, 1967-2018 Laurie passed away peacefully at Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario on Monday January 8th, 2018 at the age of 50 years. Loving partner of Tim Wayne. Beloved mother of Sacha Kingston-Wayne and Daniel Kingston-Wayne. Daughter of Diane Kingston and the late Bob Kingston of Hawkesbury, Ontario. Daughter-in-law of Susan Wayne, Jack Wayne and Susan Silva of Toronto, Ontario. Will be dearly missed by her sister Linda Kingston and her partner Ian (Ottawa); brother-in-law Andrew Wayne, his partner Brenda MacDonald, nieces Claire, Esme and nephew Noah (Guelph ..read more

Hello All, I have sad news.  Laurie died yesterday morning. She was comfortable and pain-free until the end. Her end of life care was exceptional.  I am beyond grateful for all the love and support we have received. It has made going through an impossible ordeal possible. As I have been reminded over the last few days, knowing something is coming doesn't make it any easier. In the next while we will be thinking about the best ways to remember Laurie. I would welcome your thoughts and input in the future. With Love, Tim If you are reading this post on a site other than Not Just ..read more

An update from Tim: Here are the last few Facebook posts I made on Laurie's behalf over the last few months. Apologies for everyone who is not on Facebook or connected with me by email. November 16 I would like to let you all know how Laurie is doing and what is going on health wise with her. Over the last few weeks Laurie has been suffering from some cognitive issues that has limited her ability to post and comment here, As these issues got more serious her oncologist scheduled an MRI to try and find out the cause and to make a plan to deal with it. The MRI showed that there are new tumou ..read more

On Monday, I got a call from the nurse who works with my oncologist. I had a CT scan last week, so the phone call made me I brace myself for the worst kind of news. Instead, she said "You have a blood clot on your lung." What unfolded next is a bit blurry but I know that I asked if there was cancer on the CT (no), whether this was life-threatening ("absolutely not") and what I should do next. I was instructed to get myself to a specific ER (at the General Campus of the Ottawa Hospital, which also houses the Cancer Centre). They would be told to expect me. Tim and I gathered up our stuff, ma ..read more

If you are reading this post on a site other than Not Just About Cancer (besides Facebook or a feed reader), you are reading stolen content ..read more

I had an MRI a couple of weeks ago and got the results last week. There has been slight progression in all three tumours in the brain. That's the bad news. The good news is that there are no new tumours and that my spine and cerebrospinal fluid remain clear, with no detectable cancer. This means that the Herceptin must be doing something for things to be progressing relatively slowly. We just have to figure out how to make it better at its job. There is very little research, when it comes to leptomeningeal disease (or leptomeningeal carcinomatosis), so in lots of ways we are making things ..read more

I have now had 24 treatments of Intrathecal Herceptin. A few weeks ago, my friend Karin came and took photos. They were for me (because I can't see my own head) and they helped me a lot to understand the process. It's occurred to me that some of you might like to see them too.  Every week, I am placed in a private room. It's been the same room every time and I have come to think of it as mine. I get the usual "pre-meds" of intravenous Gravol (dramamine) and Demerol (meperidine) that I have had for years with Herceptin to keep from having a reaction.  My oncologist (only doctors a ..read more

This article explains why some of us get so annoyed when cancer "awareness" campaigns focus on saving the "girls" or the "tatas" or - well you know what I mean. Lots of food for thought here and I learned some things about cisgender privilege and breast cancer. From "Every day feminism, It's a longish read but very well done. "4 Ways Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns Can Be Sexist and Oppressive" If you are reading this post on a site other than Not Just About Cancer (besides Facebook or a feed reader), you are reading stolen content ..read more

This is one of the very best and most powerful adds I have seen on breast cancer. And that is saying something. It's about living with metastatic breast cancer, less than 3 minutes long and very, very worth it. If you are reading this post on a site other than Not Just About Cancer (besides Facebook or a feed reader), you are reading stolen content ..read more

I have now had 17 intrathecal (injected into my brain) treatments of the Herceptin. I'm getting used to it. I had an brain MRI on September 15. It showed all visible tumours to be stable. There were no new visible tumours. As I said, in an email to family: "The brain MRI shows things to be stable. This is so much better than the alternative that we celebrated with gelato and a meal out. It would have been nice to see some progress but this is still good. What's difficult to know is if I am just staying stable right now on my own or if the treatment is working. What is certai ..read more