My challenge is walking without crutches. I’m not able to put my entire weight & balance on my left knee or step up with my left on steps due to weak quad muscles. I’ve been doing all the exercises my PT gave me to the point of exhaustion & frustration. My doctor & PT seem to think that doubling down with the exercises will somehow speed up the process of me transitioning from crutches to a cane to nothing at all. However it has left me more frustrated, exhausted and sore. I think I’ve made incredible progress, however being on crutches this long seems to be an issue and now the ENTIRE focus is me getting off my crutches.
I'm going to agree with everyone else on here. Don't worry about giving up the crutches yet. Your knee isn't ready to do that and if you give up the crutches before then, you will risk having a fall.
Crutches (and a stick) are just tools, to help you walk normally and safely. That's all. There are no prizes for giving them up early, and no penalties for taking a little longer.
Your poor knee - and you - have been subjected to pressure, to achieve a good Range of Motion (ROM) in just a short time. You've done that, but it's been at the expense of not allowing your knee any time to recover and heal within its own time frame.
Every knee is different, and it's not logical to expect your knee to conform to some artificial, "one-size-fits-all"agenda.
I'm sure you've been shown a couple of exercises to help strengthen your quads. My advice is for you to take some time off formal PT. Stay home, cut down drastically on the exercises, and use your knee as normally as you can in your everyday life. Just do a couple of the quad-strengthening exercises once a day.
Give your knee and yourself more time to rest, ice and elevate, and try not to worry about giving up the crutches yet.
You will find that you gradually start to give up those crutches naturally. You'll start leaving one behind, or walking by holding onto some furniture and then realising that your crutches are on the other side of the room. That will be the time to drop down to using just one crutch. Later, you'll feel confident enough to change the crutch for a stick.
Just let it happen naturally, as your leg heals and strengthens and you gain more confidence in it.