The physical therapist’s waiting room is full of people starting over. Nobody there is judging your limp.

A room full of people in the same condition has a different atmosphere from the rest of the world. Everybody there has lost something physical and is working to get it back, which removes the usual self-consciousness almost completely. Nobody is assessing how you walk, because they are all occupied with their own. That shared position is one of the few genuinely comfortable things about rehab.

Use the room rather than enduring it. Say something to the person next to you, since you already have the thing in common that matters there. And do the exercises without hiding how limited they currently are.