The mayor's wife was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center on Friday, October 15 with pain in her leg and pelvis related to her battle with metastic breast cancer, which has spread to a bone in her leg, lung and liver. She was released Tuesday and went to her doctor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital upon arriving back in Chicago.
"She is feeling much better and I want to thank everybody for their prayers," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. The Daleys were in Washington for a fundraiser.
"No one wants to go to the hospital and secondly, I think she is happy to come back," said Mayor Daley. ". . . and remember, there are families all over, and she keeps reminding us, there are families allover that have illnesses in their family and we have to do everything possible to give them the best support."
The pain, which may be a microfracture according to published reports, is in the same leg where Maggie Daley had a titanium rod put in for strength earlier this year. An oncologist at Northwestern Memorial said x-rays and blood work taken in Washington show no change in Mrs. Daley's cancer, according to published reports. Mayor Daley said his wife's hospitalization had to do with general weakness caused by the treatments.
"I know people who have been through chemo that get very weak and that requires a lot of rehab and a lot of working of their legs and their arms. And that's what she has been doing," Mayor Daley said.
Maggie Daley was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. Despite the complications, the mayor insists his wife plans to continue her work.
"She told me over the week, 'We have to do more in the after school programs. I don't care who's the next mayor, I'm going dedicate my life to after school matters,'" said Mayor Daley.
Maggie Daley is the founder and chairperson of After School Matters, afterschoolmatters.org, which offers out-of-school activities to Chicago high school teenagers and is the largest program of its kind in the United States.
