New Details on the Recovery of Gabrielle Giffords

Since President Obama delivered the first big news about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords's recovery when he annouced, "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time today," the rosey headlines have kept on coming.

But the reality of her life inside a Houston rehab center is a different story.

Peter J. Boyer wrote the cover story for this week's Newsweek: "What's Really Going on with Gabby Giffords?"

He spoke to her staffers, friends, doctors, and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

Boyer told INSIDE EDITION, "This was a person who spoke for a living, who's now having difficulty making a sentence. He (Kelly) was hoping for a public perspective. It was he who told me, there's not going to be a public appearance at the launch."

Kelly is scheduled to command the space shuttle launching at the end of the month, but Newsweek reports that if Giffords is there the public won't see her.

"If we were to see her right now, we would see a person who is going through intensive therapy regime—someone who walks, but with assistance. She will not be the person that she was before," said Boyer.

But the people closest to Giffords maintain a deep faith that she will go on to lead a meaningful life.

Boyer said, "They describe her recovery in optimistic terms with the slight caveat that they know it's going to take a very, very long time."