Update 3:13 p.m.: Bush was released from the hospital this afternoon. "Let me add just how touched we were by the many get-well messages we received from our friends and fellow Americans. Your prayers and good wishes helped more than you know, and as I head home my only concern is that I will not be able to thank each of you for your kind words," Bush said in a statement today. "His doctor said the nation's 41st president will not need special medication but will continue physical therapy as he recovers," reports NPR. 

President George H.W. Bush's curious two-month visit to a Houston hospital has come to a healthy end, and he'll be returning home today, according to NBC News but not yet his back-and-forth family spokesperson. Here's the NBC hospital scooplet:

BREAKING: Former President George H.W. Bush will be released from the hospital today, NBC News confirms

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 14, 2013

Bush was first admitted to Houston's Methodist hospital on November 23, and he even spent a week in the intensive care unit as physicians said they were dealing with a persistent fever. And that's scary for anyone, let alone the 88-year-old former president. During Bush's stay, we got varying word of his health status through various spokespeople and family friends. His former chief of staff said Bush was getting better; but his spokesman, Jim McGrath, said he wasn't; then he was singing in the ICU; then everything was just fine. Despite the NBC report this morning McGrath said the family was a waiting word from doctors, and was expecting Bush to be released "early this week."

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Alexander Abad-Santos