Hi Mic,
My doctors instructions were to go gradually and to let my pain be my guide. He told me not to push through the pain but to back off when it hurt. I’ve done this and feel that I’ve progressed very well but it has to come in stages and you have to be patient. I began with partial weight bearing. I know it sucks to keep those crutches but it’s worth it. I began gradually putting weight on it and using my crutches to still support some weight. Yes it hurt if I tried too much. And the tingles in the bottom of my foot were such a strange sensation. So I first worked on getting through those weird tingles. After that I listed to my body and put as much weight as I could without pain. I would experiment often to see where my pain level was and little by little I could add more and more weight until I was walking full weight. I kept the crutches handy. You’d see me carrying them into work lol because if the day became too long I would revert back to partial weight bearing to keep from doing too much at once. Then my doctor graduated me to a stiff ankle brace and I began the process all over. I pulled the crutches back out for support and began gradually adding weight to my ankle in just the brace and this went much quicker but it kept me in control and allowed me to follow my doctors orders of not letting it hurt. I have now started walking around home with a naked ankle. I make sure I put my brace on if I leave the house or when I’m doing bigger stuff at home like chores. My next appointment is in a week and I expect to be turned loose for the final stage of walking with nothing on my ankle and working on getting the rest of that mobility in my ankle back. It’s gradual. I’m at 9 weeks now so The point I’m at now is 4 weeks since I started weight bearing. It’s gradual. It takes time. But the time flies by much faster once you feel like you’re starting to make progress because each day gets a little easier and you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know each persons healing process is a little different but I hope my experience helps you. Best of luck in your recovery. You’re “over the hump” and it just gets better and better from here!