Made some advances this week with the help of my son in law. Began sleeping with no boot on Tues night .. above the covers. Then on Wed night with no boot under the sheets. Had to untuck the sheets at the foot of the bed, but all in all felt pretty good. On Friday my son in law started having me do a little more balancing on the BL and we used it to go down the stairs with some assistance from the hand rails and crutches. I used the crutches and the BL to come back up and it felt great. No more going up the stairs on my butt!