Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Removes Helmet After Skull Surgery

Bill Clark/Roll Call via Getty Images(HOUSTON) -- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Thursday was finally able to remove the helmet she had been forced to wear ever since she underwent surgery to remove part of her skull as a result of the bullet wound to the brain she suffered in January.

The Arizona Democrat was holding a meet-and-greet event in Tucson when police said Jared Lee Loughner shot her at point-blank range.  Six people were killed and 12 others besides Giffords were wounded in the assault.

On Wednesday, doctors used a plastic implant to close the hole in Giffords's skull that was created to relieve pressure as her brain swelled because of her wound.  Doctors reported Thursday that everything went well.

Neurosurgeon Dong Kim, who performed the operation, said, "I started calling her gorgeous Gabby today.  She hasn't looked in the mirror yet, but as soon as she does, she'll be very pleased."

Giffords' chief of staff, Pia Carusone, acknowledged that her boss hated wearing helmets, even the one decorated with the Arizona flag.

True to her fighting spirit, Giffords was recovered enough Thursday to resume rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial in Houston.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Mark Kelly Says Wife Gabrielle Giffords Is Doing 'Really Well'

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images(HOUSTON) -- Space shuttle commander Mark Kelly says his wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is doing "really well" after undergoing cranioplasty surgery in Houston Wednesday morning.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday morning from Endeavour, which docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, Kelly said he was able to speak to Giffords' mother and his twin brother, astronaut Scott Kelly, by telephone during the operation.

"She's doing really well," Mark Kelly said.  "Everything went as planned.  Her neurosurgeons are very happy.  She's recuperating and she's actually getting back to therapy today.  So it went really, really well."

Giffords was shot in the head earlier this year in Tucson, Arizona.  A portion of her skull from the left side of her head was removed to ease the stress and pressure on her brain due to swelling.

On Wednesday, doctors inserted a plastic replacement, whose shape was generated by a computer to match the shape of the lost bone.

Earlier in the week, Giffords was on hand at the Kennedy Space Center to watch her husband blast off into space for Endeavour's final flight.

ABC News has been told that Kelly, as a gesture of love, took both of their wedding rings on the flight with him.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Gabrielle Giffords Completes Skull Surgery in Houston

Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords(HOUSTON) -- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had cranioplasty surgery at Memorial Hospital in Houston Wednesday morning – an important step in her fight to recover from an attempted assassination in Tucson earlier this year. A source confirmed to ABC News later in the day that the surgery is complete and that Giffords is doing well.

While she was in the operating room, the other half of this high-powered couple, astronaut Mark Kelly, spent the early hours of the morning guiding the space shuttle Endeavour through the complicated maneuvers to dock with the International Space Station.

After the Tucson shooting, in which six people died and 13, including Giffords, were injured, a portion of her skull was removed to ease the stress and pressure on her brain.

In Wednesday's procedure, a team led by Dr. Dong Kim inserted a plastic replacement, its shape generated by computer to match the shape of the lost bone.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio