I am 15 years old and I have fractured my left ankle in 2 places and also sprained (3rd degree) my right ankle by falling off a horse while jumping and landing on my feet. I had a surgery on my fractured ankle to insert 12 screws and a metal and it has been about 3 months since the accident.
Although I still have trouble walking, (difficulty balancing, wabbly, stiff) the ankle is healing up well, except I am still in pain. It hurts when I touch around the ankle and the pain seems to be getting worse.
It is still very swollen all around the ankle and the screws can be felt through the skin.

I mentioned my doctor that the hardwares are irritating my skin by rubbing against the sneaker and the splint, and he decided to have a surgery to get the screws and plates removed. He was also worried that my cartillage may be damaged due to the fact that my ankle is still swollen after 3 months and the pain that I'm experiencing. (posttraumatic osteoartheritis?) The doctor said that I may need to take and MRI after the removal of hardwares to see the inside of the ankle which cannot be observed by an x-ray. If I am still in pain, I have to have 3rd surgery to insert a camera in my ankle to see what is wrong with the inside.
Do you think these procedures/surgeries are really necessary for me to get better? And is this kind of situation common to those people who have fractured their ankles?

And also, do you know the difficulty level to the surgery of removing hardwares? I am kind of nervous about the surgery. I know it's alot easier than the previous surgery since it's not fractured anymore. Am I going to be put to sleep during the surgery? I was told that I could go home the day I get my surgery but is that really possible? I would like to know the healing period after the surgery. Am I goig to have more difficulty walking?
I am sorry for the complicated story...Thank you very much.