Six Months Later, Good Medical News
Who didn't gasp last November when Elizabeth Edwards , energetic mother of three and wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards , capped the 2004 race by revealing she had breast cancer? Well, half a year later, we've got news to report: The treatment is over, and her doctors feel hopeful about the future.
"She feels great," says spokeswoman Kim Rubey , "and her doctors are optimistic. It's all very positive." Which, as cancer doctors told us, is about as good as it gets since they just don't like to use the word cured.
Her ordeal started right after the Kerry-Edwards team lost to the Bush-Cheney machine, when she told her husband she'd found a lump in her right breast a week and a half earlier. First came chemotherapy to shrink the mass, then a lumpectomy, and finally radiation, which ended late last month. And despite the treatment and loss of hair, now growing back, "she's been in great spirits," Rubey tells us, "through the whole process."
It's a good thing. Work beckons. The Edwardses are selling their Georgetown mansion--price $6.5 million--and moving home to North Carolina to build a new house. And don't forget: maybe a presidential race in 2008.
Edwards's speedy recovery has cheered many she knows, not the least of whom is Sen. John Kerry . "She's a courageous soul," says Kerry, "and a fighter to the core."
The Top Diplomat's New French 'Do'
The most famous flip in Washington since Jackie Kennedy 's is getting a sophisticated, maybe even presidential, remake. We hear that Secretary of State Condi Rice is ditching her trademark flip and moving to a more elegant French twist and other upswept designs. "I'm surprised nobody's noticed," said one pal about the media's obsession with Rice's fashion. "People kept thinking she'd cut it. But then she came in one day with a whole new do. It's like a big blowout of the hair." The insider's assessment was that the change is for the best. "She was mocked on Saturday Night Live for her hair, so it's a good thing."
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