The 75th House District campaign heated up Friday as state Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Morris, responded to attacks on her General Assembly attendance record.

"The only time I was not able to be in Springfield was when I was diagnosed as too sick to drive to the Capitol," she said. At other times, she had a driver take her to Springfield and back.

This is the first time Gordon, D-Morris, disclosed that a serious illness, hospitalization and surgery caused her to miss some legislative days. Gordon, who said she would have preferred to not be specific about her illness, was angry about having to make the disclosure.

"What makes me mad about the whole thing is that there is zero privacy left," she said. Yet, she felt she had to respond to Republican challenger Sue Rezin's, also of Morris, criticism during a radio debate for absenteeism.

Asked Friday if she had known Gordon had been ill, Rezin said: "I had not. I heard something privately, but this is the first time it has been made public."

Gordon said she lost 85 pounds. For years, she suffered migraine headaches but medication kept them under control. Two years ago, the medication "wasn't working," she said. "I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't digest food. ... I still went to Springfield. I was on the impeachment committee and never missed a meeting as the committee's legal adviser."

She said her first significant time in the hospital was in February 2009, when she was taken by ambulance to the Ottawa hospital. Then, she stayed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for 11 days.

Later, "I was in and out of Morris Hospital in emergency room trips," she said. She had surgery at Loyola University Hospital in mid-November 2009. She developed a potentially life-threatening infection, causing another emergency hospitalization. Last May, her doctors cleared her for exercise and "my energy level is up and I am out working," she said.

Still, during that time, Gordon said she co-sponsored more than 50 bills and was lead sponsor of 14 bills signed into law. "I worked with my staff and neighboring representatives to make sure legislation I sponsored was being addressed and that my constituents were represented."

Gordon criticized Rezin's record of attendance as a member of the Nettle Creek School Board at Morris, saying that Rezin has offered no explanation for missing 20 percent of the board's meetings.

Rezin didn't dispute the absences Friday, but said: "I sit on four to five different boards, committees, chair several committees and have a multitude of meetings that I go to. My reputation in this area is for being responsive in terms of attendance and being a huge benefit to all of the boards and organizations that I serve on."