That’s Josh at the pediatric intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins. Yep, he’s reading a comic book I brought him.

He’s doing better now. He’s off the ventilator and when I was there yesterday he was turning into his usual smart-ass self. He was talking about fishing and sticking hooks through fish eyes as well as complaining non-stop about a sore throat. The sore throat was his fault. When it came time to take the ventilator out he just ripped it out instead of letting the nurses do it for him.

One of the funnier thing he was doing is that he’d peel sticky things off his chest and watch a nearby monitor showing that he’d flat line. It was classic.

Last I heard yesterday, Josh had been moved from ICU to the regular children’s ward. They were doing some test and trying to figure out if the meningitis was viral or bacterial. If it was one it was more severe but could be treated with antibiotics while the other was less severe, but couldn’t be treated. It was going to take a few days to figure out which it was and they weren’t sure how long he’d be in the hospital, but he does seem to be doing better.