12:15 p.m.

Nurse Tamara came out to talk with us about an hour ago.  She actually had come earlier but she asked for the "Ramón" family. I thought to ask but didn't. So she came out again and told us that surgery began at around 9:15 a.m., after a long prep. They had taken Mom downstairs at 6:30 a.m.

Nurse Tamara said that everything was going fine and that she was feisty. Tamara said she liked Mom a lot. The surgeons had already tapped into the tumor and a sample had been sent for biopsy. Meanwhile they're taking more tumor out and preparing the equipment that is used to align their instruments once they know exactly how much tumor they can remove.

Once they close it will take another hour to hour and a half.