@sunshine22220 I see your back is very red. Wow! My immune response to metals wasn't that strong. With my ankle fracture, my ankle was warmer than the non injured one, but not excessively hot, and it was a bit reddish or purplish with slight swelling. It hurt all the time like someone kicked me and it throbbed. I was getting skin pigment forming slightly over the plates, and I had hives all the time that would expand to cover large areas on arms and legs or my belly. I had to stay on antihistamines all the time or the itching was severe and hives would start easily where clothing contacted my skin, but the patches of hives could come up anywhere. Perhaps this would have become more severe if the surgical hardware was in my body longer, but it was removed at 18 months.

I have some background on understanding my body's reaction to foreign materials and metals. A a kid I broke my teeth which resulted in a lot of dental work and root canals and crowns with various metals that would be replaced and redone over the years. I developed allergic asthma, and when the old root canals failed, I had all the old crowns and bad teeth removed and got ceramic Zirconia dental implants (no metals). My asthma improved immediately. My old silver fillings had been replaced by safer composites by a biological dentist. I was metal free for the first time in 50 years and my health improved dramatically until I broke my ankle and got titanium plates and screws. None of that metal is pure as these are alloys (mixtures), so I don't know specifically which metals caused the issues, and I had a lot of years of exposure with the dental work.

The first 6 months after the ankle surgery seemed OK, but with a lot of pain because that is a very painful injury and recovery. The hives started at the 6 month mark, and I had to wait at least a year before the titanium could be removed. I waited 18 months, and had the hardware removed which improved those symptoms of hives and throbbing pain immediately. I had pain from the surgery of course, but it was better. I am now 4 years past the fracture injury, and a bit over 2 and a half years after hardware removal. I don't have the former hardware pain at all, but I still have some discomfort with ankle tendons and ligaments that can fatigue and ache. That's because of the injury, not hardware. My orthopedic surgeon at Mayo said about 20% of patients have hardware removed after surgery like mine because of pain. He didn't know if the hives were related to having the hardware, but I thought so, and I don't have issues with hives now, so I accept that as being related to metal exposure. I have no metals in my body now and my asthma improved after the surgical hardware was removed.

The field of Environmental medicine does help patients with immune responses to foreign materials from surgical implants and metals. You could look at the Environmental Health Center Dallas as they have some information on their website. https://www.ehcd.com/

I think you'll be better after the metals are removed as long as what is placed inside your body doesn't cause a similar problem. Did your doctor do testing for metal sensitivity? That's not fool proof, because you can always develop a sensitivity further down the road after a period of exposure. I am also a spine surgery patient and I had a cervical fusion at C5/C6 done without hardware and I just received a donor bone implant and I stayed in a neck brace until it fused. That was the best choice I could have made knowing what I know now.

When is your surgery scheduled?

Jennifer