President Rests, Has Quiet Day : Regan Briefs Him and Bush Says It Is ‘Business as Usual’

One day after learning that he has cancer, President Reagan spent a quiet day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center and conferred Tuesday with his chief of staff, while other Administration officials ran the government from their White House offices.

Taking pains to portray the White House as functioning normally although the Oval Office was empty, Vice President George Bush declared: “Life goes on--business as usual.” Referring to optimistic assessments of the President’s health, he told reporters: “I think the news is so encouraging that it’s really going to slip back just as if the President were off on vacation somewhere.”

White House spokesman Larry Speakes issued a lengthy statement criticizing the Soviet Union’s behavior at the just-concluded second round of arms talks in Geneva, while Bush traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with Republican senators. And the White House offered a view of a President able to review his daily national security briefing, to walk--with someone steadying him at the elbow--shave, watch television and sit in a chair to read.

Only Two Visitors

But Reagan saw no visitors other than his wife, Nancy, and--for 25 minutes--Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, and he made no telephone calls, Speakes said.

The spokesman also said that Reagan did not read the statement on the arms talks, although he was given an oral summary by Regan. Bush said he had not seen it, either.

White House officials are still mapping a course for Reagan to follow for the rest of the summer, and the workload will depend on the speed of his recovery. He is still expected to leave the hospital in time to meet briefly with President Li Xinnian of China, who is scheduled to visit the White House next Tuesday. And he may advance by several days his departure, scheduled for Aug. 14, for his ranch northwest of Santa Barbara.

‘Excellent Spirits’

The officials have shown sensitivity to reports that Chief of Staff Regan was running the government, and one senior official told news agency reporters: “The President will make the decisions based on the paper work.”

Speakes said the 74-year-old President, in “excellent spirits,” has maintained “an optimistic and enthusiastic outlook” and is “beginning to question some of the restrictions that are on him at the moment.”

He said Reagan’s temperature, elevated Monday as he continued to recuperate from surgery last Saturday to remove a malignant tumor from his colon, was in a “normal range” Tuesday, as were his pulse rate, respiratory functions and blood pressure.

“There are no complications on the President’s road to recovery,” Speakes said. “His condition remains excellent and his vital signs stable.”

Reagan continues to receive antibiotics through an intravenous tube, and a nasal-gastric tube, reaching down the esophagus into the stomach, remained in place to remove gases and liquids that could cause discomfort, Speakes said.

In addition, he reported, “there have been some signs of resumption of normal digestive activity,” an indication of recovery. Speakes said Reagan’s doctors expect him to “lose a few pounds,” dropping below his usual weight of 190 pounds.

“The man hasn’t eaten a hamburger since Wednesday,” the spokesman said, referring to the fast Reagan followed before entering the hospital for the intestinal examination that led to the removal of a two-inch malignant growth and two feet of his lower intestine. Doctors said Monday that they found no evidence that the cancer had spread.

‘Warms My Heart’

On Tuesday afternoon, Speakes said, the President walked around his hospital suite with Mrs. Reagan, viewing some of the plants and flowers sent to him, and told her: “This is the best medicine I could have. This outpouring of friendship and good will really warms my heart.”

Speakes said Mrs. Reagan later shared some of the flowers and plants with youthful patients in the hospital, who had prepared cards and drawings for the President.

Mrs. Reagan, who had decorated her husband’s quarters with pictures of their family and California scenes, also brought a jigsaw puzzle for him to work on, said her press secretary, Jennefer Austin Hirshberg.

Report on Meetings

At White House meetings where the President would have presided, Regan took over, and he later gave the President a report on a breakfast with the Cabinet and a meeting with congressional Republican leaders.

Bush, posing for pictures at the start of a meeting with a Japanese delegation, told reporters asking why he had not yet seen Reagan: “My view is, we ought to be a little considerate of his feelings, of the family’s feelings and of the doctors’ feelings. They think the less crowding in on him, the better--the more time he has to rest and relax and recover, the better.”

He added: “If I had something compelling, where I needed his judgment or his sign-off, I’d make arrangements to get that.”

No new details about Reagan’s medical condition were disclosed Tuesday.