With [article id="1650360"]the cast of "The Challenge" ready to send a shout-out[/article] to host TJ Lavin on Wednesday night's (October 20) episode of the MTV show, his pal Chas Aday tells MTV News that -- despite a minor setback due to a bout of pneumonia -- the injured BMX biker is "doing really well."

"Actually, things are really improving today," Aday told MTV News on Wednesday afternoon about Lavin, who's [article id="1650169"]recovering from a serious biking accident[/article] he suffered last week while performing a stunt. "He's breathing on his own. They're just assisting him. The pneumonia's getting better, but then they're gonna try to get him off the tube either today or tomorrow."

In addition to those improvements, Lavin is also responding well and "following simple commands like squeezing hands or giving thumbs-up to the doctors," Aday reported. "But he still hasn't really opened his eyes yet. But they're comfortable with the brain. They don't see any brain damage, and they think he's going to make a full recovery."

Aday explained further that Lavin was "still gonna have to have wrist surgery, but it's going to be delayed a few weeks. It sounds like the important thing is to get him off the breathing tube [fully] so he doesn't get any sicker with the pneumonia or anything. They want to get that cleared up, get him breathing on his own, and then we can worry about the wrist later. Probably within a couple weeks for the wrist surgery."

With [article id="1650262"]so many people rooting for Lavin's speedy recovery[/article], Aday noted that the daredevil's entire family has been hanging tough and remaining optimistic. "Everybody's been really strong and positive, and they just all want to see him get better. His mom's held up awesome. His fiancée's held up awesome," he said. "It's just everybody being really strong and supportive. All his sponsors, MTV, just everybody ... it's been great. He's getting a ton of support.

"It's just been amazing," he added. "We're just thankful that there's that many people pulling for him."

Share your well-wishes for Lavin and his family in the comments.