PRESIDENT: Workload Extended : President Called Back to Normal, Gets More Work

WASHINGTON —  With the medical tubes removed from his body and solid food again on his menu, President Reagan was described Thursday as “totally back to normal,” and he tackled an extended workload in his hospital suite.

For the first time since undergoing surgery Saturday for the removal of a two-inch malignant tumor, as well as two feet of his colon, Reagan was receiving no medication, and his aides began anticipating his return to the White House.

Looking further ahead, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the President will probably meet in September with Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the new Soviet foreign minister, who will be in the United States to attend the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

‘I’m Feeling Great’

As the White House tried to portray his recovery as flawless, Reagan was quoted by his staff as saying that “I’m feeling great,” and Speakes said: “The President is totally back to normal.”

As Reagan approached the end of the workweek at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, a pattern emerged in which he is visited by doctors in the morning, spends nearly an hour with key aides and then relaxes in the afternoon. In the evening, he has watched Humphrey Bogart movies on a local television station.

Late Thursday afternoon, the President, smiling and accompanied by his wife, Nancy, strolled to an open hospital window to wave at photographers alerted in advance, and he flashed an “OK” sign. He was wearing blue pajamas and a bathrobe.

Responding with hand signals, Reagan indicated that he did not know when he would come back to the White House, but Speakes said he would not return before Saturday, the seventh day after surgery. Doctors have said that he would be hospitalized seven to 10 days.

Reagan conferred with Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan for nearly 45 minutes, as he did Wednesday, and relayed a message to squabbling members of Congress through his senior aide.

“We want a sensible and sound budget. It is up to Congress to adopt a budget. The American people expect it,” Reagan said, according to Speakes.

Reagan and the chief of staff were joined for about 20 minutes by National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane. Speakes said McFarlane reported on the second round of U.S.-Soviet arms reduction talks in Geneva and on the status of the Administration’s counterterrorism program.

But Speakes said that no other visits or telephone calls--either to members of Congress or to anyone else--were on the President’s schedule and that all other time devoted to presidential matters was spent on paper work.

When asked about the decision not to let the President’s doctors address new questions about the four-month delay in conducting the intestinal examination that led to surgery, Speakes said: “The Reagans haven’t asked anybody--they just expect it from their medical team.”

Meanwhile, Vice President George Bush reported by telephone to eight allied leaders that Reagan “is recovering very fast,” Bush’s spokesman said.

Later, Bush joked that the mantle of the presidency, which he was handed during Reagan’s surgery, was “awesome,” and he quipped to reporters that even so, he “got in 1 1/2 hours of tennis.”

Reagan, placed on a liquid diet Wednesday as doctors slowly introduced food and drink to his healing digestive system, was given a menu that included solid food Thursday--”a feast of baked chicken and rice,” Speakes said.

Intravenous tubes that administered nourishment and medication were removed, medical staples used to bind his incisions were replaced with adhesive strips, and his pulse, blood pressure, temperature and respiratory functions were normal, the spokesman said.

As further evidence of Reagan’s recovery, Speakes cited the President’s recitation Wednesday evening of two lengthy poems, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” by the late Canadian poet-novelist Robert W. Service.

“The nurses . . . followed him line for line, page for page, and he did it flawlessly,” the spokesman said.