Reagan Receives Get-Well Message From Gorbachev

President Reagan, in “excellent spirits” and recovering well from his cancer surgery, received a message of sympathy today from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said.

Speakes would not reveal contents of the letter received through “diplomatic channels” but said the Gorbachev message was sympathetic in tone.

“President Reagan had a restful night (and) slept well” at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Speakes said. His vital signs are in “the normal range” and the slight fever he had after Saturday’s operation “subsided,” Speakes said.

“There is no complication on the President’s road to recovery,” Speakes said. “His post-operative route continues to be virtually trouble-free.”

He said Reagan had watched both the evening and morning television news programs and had heard a good deal of broadcast talk about his condition.

Questioning His Restrictions

“I think you can say the President is beginning to question some of the restrictions that are on him at the moment,” Speakes told reporters at a White House briefing. “He’s already talking about his schedule and return to work. So, I think the President is, in his own mind, ready to be up and at ‘em.”

Speakes said the only discomfort Reagan feels is when he sits up in bed or gets up to walk around his suite.

“Chairman Gorbachev has sent a message to the President at the hospital,” Speakes said.

Asked to characterize the note, the spokesman said, “It was a message of expression sent to the President concerning the President’s surgery,” sympathetic in tone.

The White House also confirmed that Reagan had received a message of sympathy from President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, whose regime has been criticized by Washington for supplying arms to rebels in El Salvador and for human rights violations.

Sees Staff Members

Reagan met briefly today with staff members to give them instructions to urge congressional Republicans to “work together to produce a budget, hopefully this week,” Speakes said.

Reagan, still hooked up to an intravenous tube in his nose, finished a book on Calvin Coolidge today and asked for more reading material, Speakes said.

Morning visitors included Nancy Reagan, bringing with her more messages from well-wishers and a handful of balloons sent by comedian Joan Rivers. White House chief of staff Donald T. Regan was also a morning visitor.

Reagan’s doctors told a nationally televised news conference Monday that there is a better than 50% chance that the cancer will not recur.