Zsa Zsa Gabor smiled and ate ice cream on Saturday, a day after doctors amputated much of the actress' leg to fight a gangrene infection that could have killer her, her husband said.
"She talks to me and she smiles a little bit," Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, told Reuters.
Von Anhalt and John Blanchette, a spokesman for the 93 year-old Gabor, said the star of 1950s movies "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili" still does not know her leg was amputated.
"I told them (doctors) not to talk to her, because I didn't want her to get hysterical and the blood pressure goes up," he said.
He said Gabor is on morphine to take away the pain, and that in the coming days he will tell her about the surgery that removed most of her right leg.
Gabor ate ice cream and some sausage on Saturday, her husband said.
Blanchette said doctors are "guardedly optimistic" about the actress' recovery. "She was chatty and feisty this morning," he said.
Gabor's blood pressure and heart rate were normal and she was doing well late Friday, Blanchette said. He said she'll be in the hospital for another week or two and hopefully will be home by her 94th birthday on Feb. 6.
"The surgery today (Friday) went well, however, she is in frail health so we will continue to monitor her closely," said Dr. David Rigberg, associate professor of vascular surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He said there were no complications during the surgery.
Gabor broke her hip and had replacement surgery in July, and has been hospitalized several times since for swelling in her legs and blood clots throughout her body. Blanchette said the wounds wouldn't heal, so doctors had no choice but to operate.
"Ms. Gabor needed an amputation above her knee due to poor circulation and a large ulcerated area on her right leg," Rigberg said. "After consulting with her husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, we felt this was the best medical course of action."
In August, Gabor was in critical condition and asked for a priest during a hospital visit. She recovered and returned home.
Gabor has used a wheelchair since she was partially paralyzed in a 2002 car accident, and she had a stroke in 2005.
She retreated from the spotlight after the accident and stroke. She liked staying home and watching TV soap operas, game shows and old movies, husband von Anhalt told reporters in July. She detested having her picture taken by the paparazzi while she was in her wheelchair.
"She wants people to remember her as she was years ago," he said then.
A Hungarian-born sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s, Gabor had a brief and unremarkable film career, from "Moulin Rouge" in 1952 to "Queen of Outer Space" in 1958.
Her primary role was herself, dripping in glamour during TV special and game show appearances and uttering her trademark "dahling." She was also thrust into the international spotlight during a three-week trial for slapping a Beverly Hills policeman in 1989.