The news wires and the NYT are reporting that there will be a noontime news conference by presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth to discuss the ramifications of a recent follow-up visit to the doctor by Mrs. Edwards. She has been in recovery from a bout with breast cancer after the 2004 campaign; it was believed to be in remission.

Mrs. Edwards, in a brief interview from her home in Chapel Hill, N.C., said she and Mr. Edwards would discuss her health at the news conference, but she declined to elaborate.

“I’m still here,” she said.

Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Edwards campaign, would not comment. The news conference is to be held in Chapel Hill.

…After the campaign announced its intention to hold the news conference, concern grew quickly among former and current aides to the Edwards family. One close family friend reached Wednesday evening declined to comment on the announcement, but said it would affect, at least temporarily, the future of the campaign.

Prior follow-up visits had not been noteworthy other than to let the public know she had received a clean bill of health, so I’m sure many supporters are concerned and await news.

According to the AP story, the Edwards family is calling this conference having just having received her medical update yesterday (after routine tests performed on Monday), so it’s likely less-than-favorable news to report, but I hope that it’s only a bump in the road of her recovery from cancer.

As I mentioned last Saturday (3/17) when Kate and I had an encounter with the Edwards family in a local store (Presidential candidate in aisle 2 at Durham Target), they have so little privacy, so little time to be regular people, that we gave them space to just shop and be a family.  Elizabeth Edwards read the post and kindly stopped by and left a comment in the thread. This is now obviously a time when family matters most; having to deal with the public under this kind of stress is unimaginable.

Our thoughts are with the Edwards family.

A thread on the John Edwards ’08 blog is here.

If you want to see a level of inhumanity about this matter from The Base, take a trip to Freeperland. I cannot bring myself to link to that filth.