@cockatoolady Recovery after surgery to remove hardware should be a lot easier than recovery after fracture fixation surgery. I'm not sure what you meant by "instead of screws". Wouldn't the surgeon remove both plates and screws? It sounds like the path to better healing. I know in my case, my body does not like metals and I react. That caused pain like I was getting kicked all the time, pigment forming on my skin and chronic hives. Removing the hardware got me back to my ankle being more normal, not perfect because of the injury, but I'm not reminded all the time about it. I was even able to do some mountain hiking.