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Laurie Kingston, 1967-2018Laurie 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 Way ne, 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); brother-in-law Ian Wayne, his pa...
Source: Not just about cancer - January 16, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs

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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,TimIf you are reading this post on a site other than Not Just About Cancer (besides Facebook or a feed ...
Source: Not just about cancer - January 9, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs

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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 16I 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 tumours in her brain. I have not read&nbs...
Source: Not just about cancer - January 8, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs

never a dull moment: the blood clot edition
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, made sure Daniel would be OK and...
Source: Not just about cancer - February 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer cancer blog chronic illness CT scan health care metastatic pissed off Source Type: blogs

stable and unremarkable. my new favourite words.
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. (Source: Not just about cancer)
Source: Not just about cancer - January 31, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog good stuff herceptin metastatic news show and tell Source Type: blogs

progress and next steps
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 (orleptomeningeal carcinomatosis), so in lots of ways we are making things up as we go along. The first thing we...
Source: Not just about cancer - November 30, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer chemotherapy health care herceptin metastatic things i do for my health weird Source Type: blogs

every week. in pictures.
I have now had24 treatments ofIntrathecal 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 fromhaving a reaction. My oncologist (only doctors are trained to dealwith the Omma...
Source: Not just about cancer - November 14, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog herceptin show and tell weird Source Type: blogs

i learned something from this one
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. (Source: Not just about cancer)
Source: Not just about cancer - October 17, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: activism breast cancer don ' t buy pink crap good stuff pissed off show and tell Source Type: blogs

time is running out
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. (Source: Not just about cancer)
Source: Not just about cancer - October 15, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: activism breast cancer community good stuff identity metastatic show and tell Source Type: blogs

update: stable
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 certain is that we will not be stopping...
Source: Not just about cancer - October 15, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog conversations good stuff herceptin joy metastatic radiation Source Type: blogs

grieving and treatment
My father passed away a couple of weeks ago (the night before I started IT Herceptin, in fact). His service was last week. It was small and private. I was very impressed with the priest who had never met my father but listened to my mom and my sister and said some very thoughtful things.The end of my father's life was not an easy one and, in his last days, I was unable to get to the hospital. I didn't (we didn't) want to put my treatment in jeopardy by exposing myself to hospital germs. It was the right call but it was hard and it made everything seem less real and further away. I have realized that gri...
Source: Not just about cancer - July 17, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog family grief herceptin metastatic my kids my love show and tell thinking Source Type: blogs

onward
There was a bit of a rocky start but I seem to be moving forward with treatment. Every Wednesday, for the rest of the summer, I will be getting Herceptin, injected through my Ommaya Reservoir. I'm not the first in Ottawa to have an Ommaya but I am the first to have Herceptin injected in this fashion. I'm hoping hard that it's working.There was some confusion on my first week. First I was told that treatment would be delayed by a day and administered by an oncologist other than Dr. G., who has treated me for for 10 years.Then, on the day of treatment, I found out that Dr. N., his replacement, had thought I had been through ...
Source: Not just about cancer - July 1, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog family fear herceptin metastatic show and tell Source Type: blogs

limbo and dreams (updated)
I am still in limbo. My head is healed and I feel more like myself, except for some odd symptoms (my jaw is still freezing shut intermittently for a minute or so. It's so annoying. And embarrassing. It's not really something I can hide and it happens at the most awkward times).I had my surgery on May 9. Everything said to me leading up to that implied that moving ahead was urgent. And yet here we are. I have a lot of faith in my medical team but this time information is not forthcoming and it's making me crazy. I can't plan a thing and I would just like some kind of information. I know I haven't fallen through the cracks. ...
Source: Not just about cancer - June 2, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog dreams herceptin metastatic surgery weird Source Type: blogs

may you live in interesting times
It's been two weeks since my surgery and for some reason, I thought this would be the easy part. I don't really know why I thought that, except that both my surgeon a and my medical oncologist seemed to the think that putting the Ommaya in could have been like day surgery and I would be feeling like myself again in a week or so.Not so much.The nurses were much more cautious and they said to take it easy, be consistent in my activity and increase it very slowly. Ultimately, this is what makes sense. I just wish I weren't so damned impatient.My surgery was on May 9th. I was in the recovery room for much longer than planned b...
Source: Not just about cancer - May 24, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog chronic illness CT scan fear herceptin metastatic pissed off rants surgery Source Type: blogs

beating the blood brain barrier
Ouch! My writing muscle hurts! I realized this week that I have not blogged since March 23. I have so much I want to say that I don't know where to start, so it feels a little overwhelming. About 10 days ago, I had an Ommaya Reservoir, installed in my brain. Compared to my other brain surgeries it was a walk in the park but I'm still dealing with all kinds of fallout from the anesthetic, pain and healing. I had my staples out yesterday, though, so the end of the tunnel must be in sight (although my head hurts as I type this).You can see my incision and the staples here. It's in a semi-circle at the front, slightly to ...
Source: Not just about cancer - May 20, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain metastasis breast cancer cancer blog herceptin lucky metastatic news surgery weird writing Source Type: blogs