Damn, so sorry to hear about all of this.
My broken ankle was definitely a bear at the beginning.
Similar to you, I had three screws put in; I was able to do a shoe after the surgery instead of a cast, which helped, but I was basically off of the ankle for anything other than getting around with crutches, then a cane.
I was riding again in about a month - it was my right ankle, so I could skip the rear brake and not use that leg at all, and strap my cane to the subframe like House. It definitely had risks, but I weighed them against the importance for my mental state to get back on the bike. That helped, but it was a couple of months before I could start using it properly again, and I remember at one point looking down at my right leg, and seeing how visibly atrophied the muscle was compared to my left, and just breaking down crying on the living room floor. Find things to distract yourself - video games, movies, photography, something that makes you happy.
Ice helped so much with the pain in the beginning, along with elevating it at my desk every chance I could. It kept the inflammation and pain down, and let me get off of opioids quickly, and take ibuprofen intermittently instead until everything settled.
As mentioned above, physical therapy is critical. It's almost 10 years later, and aside from the scars, there's no sign I ever injured my ankle; I've run two marathons and some halves since then with no issues.
Once it's over, you can look back and see how quickly it went in the grand scheme of things - but in the moment, you're really
in it.
