Maggie Daley Back In Chicago After D.C. Hospitalization
UPDATED: 10/19/2010, 9:38 p.m.
WASHINGTON (CBS) - Chicago First Lady Maggie Daley is back home Tuesday, after spending four nights in a Washington D.C. hospital for pain in her leg. She was wheeled into Northwestern Memorial Hospital about 3 p.m. to meet with her team of doctors.
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Mrs. Daley was hospitalized over the weekend, when she started feeling cancer-related pain in her lower back and right leg. While in Washington, Mrs. Daley kept in regular touch with her Chicago-based oncologist, Dr. Steven Rosen.
On Monday, Dr. Rosen told CBS 2 he did not expect her to be admitted.
"At the moment she's on a hormonal therapy, and we see no reason to change that," he said. "We do a re-evaluation every few months."
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Mayor Richard M. Daley was cutting a ribbon, dedicating Marshall High School's new football field, as Maggie, 67, was flying back to Chicago. He'd come home last night, after doctors at Georgetown University Medical Center cleared her to return today.
Daley told us that even though she was in pain, in a hospital, a thousand miles from home, she wasn't thinking about herself.
"She told me over the weekend that we have to do more with after school programs," said Mayor Daley. "She said, 'I don't care who's the next mayor, I'm going to dedicate my life to after school programs.'"
He added: "We're looking out at Georgetown, watching the fields and different kids playing different sports, and that's all she talked about was after school programs and how important that is, the arts and sports for young people. We have to be able to do that for them."
Mrs. Daley was hospitalized Friday in Washington, D.C. She had been in the nation's capital with Mayor Daley to pick up a leadership award from the Kuwaiti ambassador.
Maggie Daley arrived back in Chicago early Tuesday afternoon in a wheelchair, accompanied by her three children: Lally, Nora and Patrick. She was wheeled right into the new Prentice Women's Hospital where Dr. Rosen and his team were waiting to evaluate her.
Maggie Daley is special, they say, not because of her political connections, but her courage and determination. Both she and the mayor seemed to take the setback in stride.
"I was there a couple of days, and Nora and Lally were there, and so she got great care and she's recovering really well," said Mayor Daley. "She has a great positive attitude and she's walking which is really important, and she understands every issue confronting her illness."
Mrs. Daley was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer back in 2002. She has already more than tripled the life expectancy of a patient with a similar cancer.
Mayor Daley thanked Chicagoans for their prayers and support. He described his wife's hospitalization as a little setback, from which she is recovering.
The good news for Maggie Daley: she has left the hospital and is back home Tuesday night. Dr. Rosen said Mrs. Daley is "feeling 100 percent better", everything checked out and she went home after her short hospital visit.
The pain caused by what might have been a microfracture in the bone weakened by cancer has now subsided. And Maggie Daley is now resting comfortable at home for the first time in five days.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and Jay Levine, and Newsradio 780's David Roe contributed to this report.
