For your first question, I'd say buy some fractional plates to see if you can go up a little at a time. I was stuck at 165lbs for a year and a half on bench press. I had been stuck at like 65lbs on my overhead press for a long while and adding 5lb increments was just too much for me, so I bought 1.25lb plates and bring them with me in my gym bag. I use them a lot more than I ever thought I would. I just got mine on Amazon.

For your 2nd point, I would LOVE to know that too! My mom just had surgery to get hers removed and I'm so tempted to if it is still there when I lose the weight I want to lose.