HOUSTON (January 14, 2013)--Former President George H.W. Bush, 88, was discharged Monday from a Houston hospital after nearly two months of treatment for illness that began as a bronchitis-related cough.

Spokesman Jim McGrath said earlier Monday that the Bush family was hopeful the former president would be released early this week from Methodist Hospital, but the final word came from Bush's doctors.

Antibiotics and steroids were prescribed to treat the cough.

Doctors consistently said the illness wasn't life-threatening, but said they wanted to prevent it from worsening to pneumonia.

McGrath couldn't say if Bush would return to his Houston home or would be sent to a rehabilitation facility.

The nation's oldest living ex-president and his wife, Barbara, spend winters in Houston and summers at their home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Bush has been hospitalized since Nov. 23, and spent a week in intensive care last month.