I visited the doctor today, and… (drum roll) she said I don’t have to walk around in a brace anymore!! I also don’t have to wear the SteriStrips, which she peeled off to reveal two very little scars.

Ashiness and hairiness aside, looks good!

My physical therapist and I have agreed that I’m about 98-99% healed, which means this has been a pretty quick recovery process. On the surface, everything looks good as new, but my meniscus still needs a few more months to fully heal. This means no running and no activities that require a lot of jumping and twisting. But otherwise, I’m walking normally and going up and down stairs (almost) normally.

It’s been a very interesting past few months being injured like this, and it’s made me really appreciate things that I took for granted while I was able-bodied. Just to name a few:

1) Painting my own toenails

I know some of you are thinking, “You would.” And I would. I love painted toenails. But for a month, I hadn’t been able to bend my leg enough to be able to paint them without pain or discomfort. As a result, my nails got pretty grody. But the good news is that a few days ago, I was able to finally paint them!

OPI Espresso Your Style nail polish atop Mount Soledad

2) Wearing jeans, slacks, etc.

Well, obviously, the brace got in the way of this. Wearing shorts every day got old fast, especially since I don’t own too many pairs to begin with. Hey, at least I got hurt during the summer time!

3) Going up and down the stairs (without crutches)

I’m still having difficulty with this, actually. But at least I’m doing it without crutches. I already wrote a whole other entry about inaccessibility, so I won’t go into it.

4) Swimming, hot tubbing, or anything that requires submerging myself in water

Go figure San Diego finally starts heating up AFTER I get surgery. But, today I got the okay from the doctor to swim, hot tub, etc. Good thing, too, because I’m leaving for Hawai’i in a little over a week!

5) Exercising

My post-high school ass never works out. But after hurting my knee, I’ll never take my ability to exercise for granted again. Ironically, I’ve been exercising more now than I have in years ever since I was able to get on the exercise bike. I really hope to stick to it in three months, when I’ll be able to run again.

I think this is going to be my last pots-op entry. Thanks again to all of you for your support!