I stopped using crutches four days ago, slightly earlier than expected. I probably could have done so even earlier except that I was trying to walk with one crutch incorrectly and therefore making it much harder. With the boot I have, I was supposed to switch to one crutch on my good side, and I was trying to use one crutch on my bad side. Oops. With a little help from youtube, I learned how to walk with one crutch correctly, and then I got the walking motion in the boot down enough to drop the last crutch altogether. I switched down to one crutch and then no crutches in the same day. Freedom! Sort of.

I spent the last few days in the city and did a fair amount of admittedly slow walking with almost no pain. Today I saw my sports medicine doctor again and he said I’m healing well. I only need to wear the giant boot for one more week, instead of the initial two he had predicted, and then I can move to a much smaller brace that I can wear in any shoe. And I can drive with it! That’s when the real freedom begins.

I start physical therapy in two days and hopefully will continue to improve quickly from there. My next doctor appointment is in three weeks, the same week I wanted to start hiking again. My doctor knows that and didn’t say no outright. My physical therapist will be able to tell me how I’m doing and the likelihood of making that date in the interim. I will also start doing shorts walks on a very easy nearby trail once I get this boot off next week.

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