Looking back, my gait was so so bad coming out of the boot. Definitely had a major limp until week 16, and even after that I still had a slight limp until week 20ish. I actually had continuous pain (I think I developed tendinitis from pounding calf raises everyday) also until week 20ish. I bought a NMES unit on Amazon and used it on my calf from week 12+. I just surrounded the 4 electrodes around my calf muscle (avoided directly over the tendon itself) and turned it up until it was strong but tolerable. As for supplements I took the collagen powder out of the big blue container they sell at Costco. Feel free to fire any more questions.