There's probably gonna be a million diaries like this in the next ten minutes, but the AP and the Boston Globe are reporting that the Senator's surgery is over and that it was successful.
Quotes from the surgeon himself:
"I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy's surgery was successful and accomplished our goals," Dr. Allan Friedman said in a statement.
Friedman said Kennedy had been awake during the operation and "should therefore experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery."
From another Boston Globe story, we learn that in this type of surgery, the patient is kept conscious in order to confirm that speech/language functions are not being damaged by the surgery:
To avoid cutting through vital areas controlling speech, doctors often bring the patient back to consciousness and stimulate tissue in the planned approach with a probe.
"We'll have them do language tests like hold up pictures, name objects, repeat words, hold a conversation," Ewend explained. "There's lots of local anesthesia, so this is not painful," he stressed.
And clearly the Senator's sense of humor was not damaged by the operation:
Asked by his wife, Vicki, how he felt after the surgery, he said, "I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow," Kennedy's office said.
Next up for the Senator, radiation and chemotherapy treatments:
The surgery lasted about 3 1/2 hours and is just the first step in Kennedy's treatment plan. After a "brief recuperation," he will begin radiation treatment and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital, Friedman said.
Kennedy, in his statement, signaled that he would wait until all treatments were concluded before returning to Washington and the floor of the Senate. That return probably won't take place until September, after the Senate returns from its summer recess.
Best wishes for Teddy can be sent via his website, here