@danim I have a broken ankle (Tibia and fibula) injury too with 2 plates and 7 screws (1 inside the fibula) and I am a year out from the injury. My surgeon would not remove the hardware until at least a year. I just started walking last September and still use an ankle brace because the tendons and ligaments take turns hurting. Things change when you stop weight bearing and using muscles, so they atrophy, and then you play catch up in physical therapy to try to regain what was lost. If there was any nerve damage, that affects muscle recovery too. I still have muscles that are small and weaker. It doesn't just bounce back because you start walking, and it's easy to compensate and not walk correctly because of the difficulty. I do have a limit of how much I can walk before fatigue and aching sets in for a few days, but slowly, it is progressing. I do have to walk to take care of and feed horses which gets me out there otherwise, it would be easy to just be lazy on the couch. I am now putting off getting hardware removed only because I don't want to miss good weather for playing with horses. The plates do cause pain and for the last 6 months I developed chronic hives so I have to stay on antihistamines to avoid crazy itching. I do have toe protection in my work boots and try to keep from getting stepped on. I have started riding again this spring with my ankle brace on. That fatigued me too because of weight bearing in the stirrup, but it does add to strength. The key is do it in small doses so as not to overdo it.