Doctors are ordering Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to take a month off because of a subdural hematoma on her brain, apparently undetected after she took a fall two months ago.  It comes at an inopportune time for Fernandez.

Congressional elections take place on 27 October, and President Fernandez was going to campaign heavily.  Polls indicate her “Front for Victory” coalition could lose control of congress, and that would pretty much crush any chance of amending the constitution to allow her to run for a third term as she is rumored to desire.

Over the weekend, “CFK” complained of headaches and an irregular heartbeat and she was taken to the hospital.  A scan revealed the subdural hematoma, bleeding between the brain and the skull.  The bleeding is apparently too small to bother with surgery, but troubling enough for doctors to order a month of rest.

Fernandez was first elected president in 2007 and comfortably reelected in 2011.  Doctors removed her thyroid glands removed last year after she was diagnosed with cancer, although later tests indicated no cancer was present.  Her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, died after a heart attack in 2010.

Vice-president Amado Boudou cut short a journey to France to return to Argentina and take over the president's duties.