Giuliani, back on the trail, explains his medical problem

Having felt completely miserable and been briefly hospitalized in the Midwest the other day, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani returned to the campaign trail today and tried New Hampshire this time for a change.

An energetic Giuliani hit the home of Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta late this afternoon to make his regular pitch to supporters and some undecideds. Afterwards, he told The Times' Maeve Reston, “It was a severe headache, yeah, and everything has turned out fine. All the tests turned out 100%. As you can see, I’m very healthy.” 

Though his campaign, to ease the load a little, canceled a town hall meeting scheduled for Friday in Merrimack and removed an Exeter house party from his public schedule for Sunday, Giuliani insisted his campaign was back in full swing.  “Now we’re right on schedule,” he said.

News bulletins flashed late the other evening when Giuliani, en route home to New York after a full day of campaigning across Missouri, ordered his plane turned around and returned to St. Louis. There, on the telephoned advice of his New York doctor, Giuliani spent the night in Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which specializes in cardiac care. The ex-mayor's staff cited "flu-like symptoms," a catch-all public relations phrase that sounds minor and forthcoming while really saying nothing that can be contradicted later. They said the symptoms had been worsening all day. 

In a taped interview to air Sunday morning on ABC-TV's “This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Giuliani says it was actually a severe headache -- the most painful he's ever had -- that worsened all day and especially after takeoff. Within 10 minutes of departure, he said, he ordered the plane turned around.

Giuliani, a prostate cancer survivor, said he was tested for "everything" and "every test came back normal." His doctor saw him Thursday in New York and pronounced him in good health, but Giuliani said the doctor would be making a full statement after Christmas, when more test results will be back, to assure all of his continuing fine health.

"I'm back on the trail, hale and hearty, ready to go, feeling great," said Giuliani, "and, you know, actually reassured by the fact that I had so many different tests and they all came back 100%."

So after all that, what kind of prescriptions did the doctors give him? Said Giuliani: "Take one aspirin a day."

--Andrew Malcolm