The Simpson Blog

As mentioned in my last post here, CTV Atlantic came to our home last week to shoot a piece for their weekly Housecall segment on CTV News At 5. Big thanks to producer Andrea Slaney, camera operator JW, intern Britney, Maria Panopalis , and anyone else along the chain who had a hand in crafting the story. You told it with compassion and accuracy. The video is on the CTV News web site , and there's a written version as well .

It's been another roller-coaster stretch as Amanda's treatment for ovarian cancer continues after it was found during the birth of our son . She's staying strong, but as she's said, "what else am I going to do?" It's weird to be called inspirational when you're barely keeping it together. After the first day of chemo treatment, chronicled in my last post , Amanda went through excruciating bone and joint pains and a level of physical exhaustion that left her afraid to hold the baby. Otherwise, it was an emotional experience. Remember that she never had any symptoms of ovarian cancer . The symptoms women are told to watch out for -- abdominal pressure, frequent urinary urgency, quickly feeling full, clothes feeling tighter -- were easily explained. She was pregnant, after all. Then the C-section and testing said she was very very sick. But she didn't FEEL sick. Getting that needle in her arm and watching the IV bag drip poison into her body fo

First off, thanks to the literally thousands of people who've read my April 16 post revealing Amanda's cancer diagnosis and the circumstances around it. Thanks also to the folks who shared it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, plus Reddit and parenting forums. If you missed it, the TL;DR summary: during C-section to deliver our first child, doctors found advanced ovarian cancer in my wife's abdomen . The support we've received in the past few weeks has been tremendous. I can't express my thanks fully enough, nor will I attempt to list all the people who've helped, offered to help, or offered kind words. Everyone has been so great. Today was the very first World Ovarian Cancer Day. I don't think most people know much about ovarian cancer, other than that it's pretty goddamned scary. That part's true. Statistically, it's far less survivable than breast cancer, which gets most of the attention in the woman-cancer sphere. Part of the problem i