DENVER — While Jamie Giellis was on the campaign trail, the mayoral candidate was also privately battling a serious health condition, according to a Facebook post she shared Monday night.
Giellis will undergo a surgery Tuesday to have a section of her trachea and voice box removed after she was diagnosed with a rare condition that sent her to the hospital just five days into her campaign.
“As many of you noticed – as I made my way along the campaign trail these past seven months – that I sometimes struggled to breathe or had loud breathing,” she wrote. “While I opted to keep quiet about this matter publicly, privately it has been a battle …”
She said she’s been diagnosed with tracheal stenosis, which she said caused her trachea to create its own scar tissue. Over the past five months, she said she’s gone to the hospital every two to three weeks and “undergoing anesthesia, and having them stretch my trachea out just to keep me breathing.”
Giellis said the surgery is a long-term solution, and that she will be in intensive care for two weeks to recuperate.
“Recovery will be slow, but should be permanent, and my voice should recover well,” Giellis wrote.
She said she’ll use the downtime to finalize what she’ll do next after she lost Denver’s runoff mayoral election to incumbent Michael Hancock earlier this month.
“Soon I’ll only have to worry about the work I love and the city I love, and not always about catching my breath,” Giellis said.
It's worth noting that even as she was battling this illness, Giellis never missed a mayoral debate or campaign event.
You can read her full Facebook post here: bit.ly/2Knx4l8
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