Just got back from a follow-up appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Klimkiewicz. Check out my souvenirs:

That’s right, he took me off the crutches. I went in there hoping he’d let me go down to one crutch, but he said I don’t even need that. The osteochondral allograft is healed, and now it’s just a matter of building the leg back to where it was. Flexibility, strength, etc. It’ll be another six months before I’m walking around like nothing happened, probably, but he thinks I’ll get there. He gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and said to keep doing physical therapy once a week, and I’m going back to see him in six weeks.

I’ve only been walking on my own for about an hour now, but so far so good. I’ve got PT this afternoon, so wish me luck on the Metro trip there and back. Quite a bit of walking. I probably won’t be any faster at first, and I can already tell it’s going to hurt more than it did with the crutches, but that’s okay because I’m off the damn things.

I am off the damn crutches.

P.S. It’s 3 in the morning, the next day. I got home from PT (about a half-mile walk to the Metro station, a quarter-mile from the Metro to the clinic, and back), and collapsed for 9 hours. Got up to go to the bathroom and could barely put weight on my left leg. This is going to take time.