Hello,

I sustained ankle fracture (right) Weber B which was repaired with ORIF (plate + 11 screws). I follow PT, however I have significant difficulties walking due to irritated skin over the ankle.
This also impacts the exercises prescribed by my PT, which normally are not difficult and I am motivated to do them, but about 15-20 minutes after the exercises or after simple walk to the office of 200 meters the skin around the metal implant gets irritated, red and hot. I also feel kind of soft tissue pain (tearing, stretching) in that area. This effect subsides after the rest of 1-2 hours, but it significantly limits my ability to follow PT sessions.
Otherwise no other pain or complaints. I feel I could easily walk about 5 km per day if not the effect afterwards which scares me a little bit.

Just to add that:
- I observe this effect only in the area around the ankle i.e. where the skin moves when walking. The scar above along the calf looks normal.
- I've always had issues with wounds healing and scars - it simply takes quite long time with me
- additionally the scar was significantly irritated by my previous PT, who was enthusiastic about physiotapes and was putting them on the scar despite the fact that I still had scabs there (obviously the scabs were torn off together with the tapes and I had to stop PT for two weeks to allow it to heal).

My questions are;
- is this normal at this stage?
- should I continue PT and ignore the fact that the area is red and irritated?
- is there any way my PT can treat it? She's trying US but I can't see the effect of it.
- is this the reason to opt for removing the plate quicker than one year?

thank you in advance for any advice

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