The time has finally come: I have been cleared by my orthopedic doctors at Boston Medical Center to return to full duty! They don’t need to see me anymore and as far as they’re concerned I can return to OCS whenever I am physically qualified to. I can finally start jogging and begin building my strength back up. I celebrated with a 20-minute jog around Fenway.

This doesn’t mean I’ll be back in the Marines anytime soon. I still need to get off disability, be cleared by the Navy, and finally have my waivers approved by the Marines and NOMI (Naval Operational Medicine Institute).

I have been looking forward to this for quite a long time. First step: get off disability.

It has been 6 weeks since I had the hardware removed from my hip and I am crutch-free once again. It’s like nothing ever happened. I have been to the gym 3 times in the past 3 days, and have resumed my usual routine. Thanks to my recent appendectomy my pullups are limited, but other than that things feel great. I was actually sore, I love it.

I have my follow-up appointment with Dr. C next Tuesday. I’ll get more x-rays and find out how long it will be before I can start running again. Hopefully soon.

I had no idea a 3 small incisions in my abdominal region could hurt so much! After 4 days of popping Percocet every 4 hours I was finally able to switch to Tylenol.

I had my 1 week post-op visit yesterday at Boston Medical Center. The NP said things look great and I shouldn’t have any problems with it, but I’m still not supposed to lift anything over 20 lbs for 5 more weeks. That’s one instruction I’m probably not going to be able to follow.