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By Wednesday, April 1, the Vice President was calling the President's recovery "amazing." That word dominated headlines around the country. At the hospital, Dr. O'Leary declared that Reagan was certainly never in danger of dying. The White House began issuing three daily "Notice to the Press" accounts of what the President ate, beginning with a Wednesday breakfast of "fresh orange juice, honeydew melon, two soft-boiled eggs, whole wheat toast and decaffeinated coffee" -- and said he walked 50 yards down a hall with his wife.When he was helped back into bed, Nancy Reagan and her stepdaughter, Maureen, daughter of the President and his first wife, Jane Wyman, sat quietly in the next room, hearing the thumping noise made by a nurse who was pounding the President's chest to bring up phlegm. Then they talked, softly, and held hands, ending years of suspicion and estrangement.
"He's so sick, oh, he may die," the daughter told a friend.
By late the next day, Thursday, April 2, the President was running a fever of almost 103. His white blood count was up; the color had drained from his face. He was spitting up blood. GW doctors put him back on antibiotics, and a chest x-ray showed cloudy areas along the bullet's track through his lung. "We've been living in a dream world," said Dr. Aaron, who told the Reagans that he was considering removing the damaged lobe of the lung.
The fever was still at 102 on Friday morning, but dropped at midday. White House photographer Michael Evans was called in to take the first post-operation pictures. One was released to the press that night. It showed the President in a bathrobe, a little bent over, smiling and holding hands with Nancy. By then his temperature was climbing again to 101.
It was a busy medical day, with new x-rays and a flexible fiber bronchoscopy snake inserted through Reagan's throat to clear the left lung of blood particles. Dr. Aaron was saying the President would probably be discharged early the next week, but other physicians were more worried, believing Reagan had developed pneumonia. He slept through most of Saturday and Sunday, treated intravenously with stronger antibiotics.
The world was also busier that weekend. Soviet troops and tanks, along with units from other Warsaw Pact countries, were on the borders of Poland -- two Red Army divisions stationed inside the country. They were involved in "maneuvers" and "war games" that had already lasted three weeks. The Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, flew to Prague on Sunday to make an unusual appearance at a Czechoslovak Communist Party Congress.
Warnings of the "gravest consequences for East-West relations" were issued from the White House, along with statements that the President was conferring with aides as the crisis deepened. American television networks carried live coverage of speeches by Lech Walesa, the Solidarity leader, and a new Polish premier. During one speech, an intern checking Reagan's room noticed that the President was sitting up, watching cartoons on TV.
On Monday, a week after the shooting, Reagan's fever was just below 100. X-rays showed his left lung starting to clear up. He was in good spirits, feeling well enough for a meeting with Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. Arriving at midday, O'Neill was shocked. He saw a sick old man in terrible pain. Reagan was feverish, obviously medicated. Doped up, O'Neill thought. He suddenly realized the President had been near death. They shook hands and O'Neill gave Reagan a book of Irish jokes. Then he left.
The chest x-rays looked a little better on Tuesday, April 7. On Wednesday, Reagan was exhausted, but worked for more than an hour, writing a little piece about his America. One of the memos that got through to him, delivered by Deaver, said that the White House had promised a July 4th message from the President for Parade magazine. Deaver thought the President might want to do it himself and that it might cheer him. He was right.
In strong handwriting, Reagan wrote of the boyish thrill of blowing tin cans 30 feet into the air with firecrackers. Then: "Enough of nostalgia. Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the birthday of our nation. I believed then and even more so today, the greatest nation on earth. That day [is] more than just the birthday of a nation. It commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history. Oh, there have been revolutions before and since. But [they have] exchanged one set of rulers for another. Ours changed the very concept of government. In this land it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights, that government is only a convenience. Happy 4th of July." God and country -- and Reagan!
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