AP Photo/Peter KramerT.J. Lavin isn't just out of the woods—he has also "crawled out of a deep hole."
At least, that's how his mother, Barbara Lavin, described her son's progress since a bike accident last month left him with a brain injury that required doctors to induce a coma.
And better yet, Lavin is back home.
"They were able in just two weeks to get him rehabilitated enough to go home," Barbara told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "He is now walking, talking, eating on his own and is getting his sense of humor back. He has some eye issues and balance issues, but as the swelling goes down, we hope they will go away."
The BMX pro rider and host of MTV's The Challenge crashed Oct. 14 while competing in the Dew Tour Championships at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.
There was swelling around his brain, and the 33-year-old also suffered broken ribs, a shattered right wrist and a fracture orbital bone.
He still wears an eye patch occasionally and needs help from his fiancée, Roxanne Siordia, to get around, his mom says. Lavin will also start an outpatient treatment program at a brain-injury center soon.
When asked during a memory test to name three historical events, her son said "9-11 and Pearl Harbor and Janet Jackson's boob," Barbara said.
"He's starting to get his personality back. He's inappropriately funny, kind of Rain Man-ish," she added.