The former president has been in Houston's Methodist Hospital for the past seven days with a concerning case of bronchitis. "Bush, 88, has bronchitis, but his condition is not considered life threatening," reports The Houston Chronicle's Dane Schiller, gleaning information from Bush's chief of staff, Jean Becker. President Bush is in the hospital ...We have kept this quiet out of respect for him," Becker said. 

We aren't quite sure how to take this news, since spending a week in the hospital isn't exactly what healthy people do. And an 88-year-old having to have extended hospital stays with lung/cough problems isn't exactly comforting.

The only people who seem to be talking to The Chronicle and CNN are Bush's spokespeople—Bush's doctors at Methodist haven't commented (perhaps they're choosing not to) in any reports just yet. That said, Becker, and Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath are both saying that the Bush family expects him to be discharged this weekend. 

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Alexander Abad-Santos