A [not so] Private Plague

Does the literal definition of metastasis seem like an understatement to anyone else? It does to me. 
I'd like to linger a minute there and on the idea of the "clonally evolving disease" to deliver some news.  Some of you may know Ms. Engelhardt, science teacher at Northern High.  Many of you may not know that she and I are close friends. I have been close to her side through two rounds of trying to cut out or obliterate "clonally evolving" cells through surgeries and chemotherapy.  Metastasis: literally "beyond stillness."  Hmph.  I asked her if I could talk about her in this blog with all of you.  She was all for it.  Through all of her struggles with cancer, she has made it her personal mission to educate people, to share her experiences and to find something positive, some light in the dark.

The thing is that when a person receives news in the privacy of the oncologist's office, the same news....again, for the third time, it can be difficult to make the private public, to share news with those who have stood beside you time and again, to let them know that once again the troops must be rallied and the ammunition must be gathered.

So, this phenomenon that Mukherjee describes, "Every generation of cancer cells creates a small number of cells that is genetically different from its parents.When a chemotherapeutic drug or the immune system attacks cancer, mutant clones that can resist the attack grow out.  The fittest cancer cell survives", today I'm wondering if this is what's going on with Ms. Engelhardt.  Her cancer it seems has evolved in this way. This coming Monday and Wednesday I will be accompanying her to a series of appointments to learn about the ammunition that will be used this time. She wants people to know.  She doesn't mind if people talk about it or talk with her about it. The hardest part for her was informing people....again.  So, hopefully, this blog entry makes all of that a bit easier.  It might be difficult  for some of you to know what to say at this point.  If that is the case, but you want to talk further, you can always email me.  Or you could email Ms. Engelhardt.  Throughout this journey, she has always welcomed and accepted open discussion and support from anyone who is comfortable giving it.

More on the actual content of this section later.