U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords is speaking in full sentences and is making a tremendous amount of progress in her recovery from a brain injury, her doctors in Houston said today. 
 
 Doctors said that in the few weeks since Giffords arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann, the rehabilitation center where she is being treated, she has gone from mouthing words to speaking sentences, saying things like, "I'm tired and want to go to bed." 
 
 Giffords is walking with assistance and is interacting with visitors and the medical staff. 
 
 Dr. Gerard Francisco, the head of the team of doctors overseeing Giffords' rehabilitation, says Giffords is gaining more movement and that the amount of assistance she needs is declining. "We can engage her for a long period of time during therapies, or between therapies," Francisco said. 
 
 Doctors said Giffords' "upbeat" personality is beginning to show. She is laughing and getting excited when she makes improvement, Francisco said. 
 
 Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 during a political event on Tucson's northwest side. Six people were killed and 13 were wounded in the shooting spree. 
 
 Doctors addressed reports this week that Giffords is hoping to be at the launch next month of her husband's space shuttle mission in Florida next month. Mark Kelly will be the commander of Endeavor when it launches in April, and his identical twin brother, Scott, is the current leader of the International Space Station crew. 
 
 Kelly has said he hoped Giffords would be able to see him off. 
 
 Dr. Dong Kim says doctors still want her to improve enough to attend the launch, but it's too early to tell. 
 
 Kim says they expect to reattach her skull at some point in May. She now wears a helmet that covers her head. He said she can travel before that happens. 
 
 Doctors also said they have removed Giffords' breathing tube, a big step forward in her recovery. Dr Imoigele Aisiku described the tube removal as a "fist-pump" moment. 
 
 Giffords does not have any memories of the shooting spree, doctors said, which is expected after an injury to the brain. 
 
 The congresswoman's husband has told her that she was shot Jan. 8, though she doesn't know about the other victims in the tragedy, Giffords' spokeswoman C.J. Karamargin confirmed today. 
 
 The Associated Press and Star Reporter Stephanie Innes contributed to this report ||||| Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s husband has told her that she was shot, but she has no memory of the incident, her doctors said Friday as they offered an update on her medical condition. 
 
 Doctors treating the Arizona Democrat said at morning press conference that she is “leaps and bounds” in her recovery, barely two months after being shot in the head at a constituent event in Tucson. 
 
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 Offering their first update on Giffords’s health since late January — just after she was moved from Tucson to Houston for rehabilitation — the doctors said that the Arizona Democrat has made “a tremendous amount of progress,” and is able to walk with assistance, string words together and pass simple memory tests. 
 
 “We can really have a conversation with her at this point,” neurosurgeon Dong Kim said at a press conference in Houston. “She’s already starting to speak in full sentences when she wants” something, he said. “For example, she said, ‘I’m tired, I want to go to bed.’ Just like that.” 
 
 Kim said she has been told about the mass shooting in which she was injured. “She has been told about the event both by her husband and by us, and I think she understands,” he said. It’s not clear whether Giffords knows people were killed in the incident. 
 
 Giffords’s short-term memory has also sharpened,” Kim said. “She can repeat anything we say to her. Now, that’s an important neurological recovery fact because what that means is that her whole primary language areas are intact.” 
 
 The congresswoman’s breathing tube has been removed in the last week, said Imogele Aisiku, the doctor who performed the procedure. “It was a significant advancement forward for her and she was very excited and expressed that demonstratively as we were able to take that out for her,” he said. 
 
 Gerard Francisco, the doctor overseeing Giffords’s rehabilitation said Giffords is “gaining more movement, she’s gaining more ability to do things for herself.” And, he said, “The amount of assistance she needs has decreased significantly.” 
 
 Kim was also upbeat about the congresswoman’s physical capabilities. “Given that it’s only been two months and she’s already walking, that’s a very favorable sign that she’ll be even stronger over the next few months,” he said. 
 
 He added that the replacement of the piece of her skull that was removed immediately after the shooting will likely happen in May. “Typically we replace that about three or four months after injury,” he said. 
 
 A source close to Giffords told POLITICO on Thursday that she is “very likely” to attend the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is being commanded by her husband, Capt. Mark Kelly. The launch is scheduled for April 19 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 
 
 Giffords’s doctors said Friday they hoped to see her make it to the launch but hadn’t decided on final plans on how to pull it off. 
 
 “It’s a good possibility that she will be able to attend her husband’s space shuttle launch next month,” Kim said.
– Gabrielle Giffords is making a "tremendous amount of progress" in her recovery and can now speak full sentences, her doctors say. Giffords is walking, though not without assistance, and can say sentences such as "I'm tired and I want to go to bed." Also, her "upbeat" personality is coming through, and she's laughing more, doctors said in a public update of her progress, reports the Arizona Daily Star. "We can engage her for a long period of time during therapies, or between therapies," said the head of her rehabilitation team in Houston. As for the shooting: “She has been told about the event both by her husband and by us, and I think she understands,” said another of her doctors, notes Politico. To read about plans to have her attend husband Mark Kelly's shuttle launch next month, click here.