Ankle Surgery

Many of you already know me. 
My name is Cesar and I currently skate with Texas Men's Roller Derby on the B team, the Texas Bandits. I always thought that I wouldn't get hurt because, well, I was ignorant. 
"I'm 19, I couldn't possibly get seriously injured while skating."
It was stupid. 

Sunday morning Feb. 1, I was skating at a scrimmage -- TexasMRD against the Dallas Derby Devils' travel team, Army of Darkness. A botched apex jump is why I am typing this. 

I am finally taking the advice of others and swallowing my pride. I've always felt that receiving this type of help from others would make me weak but it's been brought to my attention that accepting help from others doesn't make me weak, it makes me stronger as a person. I strain to type every word on this Gofundme because this isn't me but I need to change. I originally believed that I only had 2 fractures in my ankle area. During my appointment with the orthopedic doctor, he found another issue. I have a break and a fracture in my tibia as well as a fracture in my fibula. The doctor also says that the break in my tibia may have also torn 1 or two ligaments in the surrounding area. I was told that I would need to have surgey as soon as the swelling went away in about 6 or 7 days and that the surgery would most likely cost about $10,000 total. 

I don't come from a family of many resources. We've always just had the necessities and that's okay but now, what we have is not enough to cover the cost of this surgery. I do not have primary health insurance, so WFTDA insurance is all I have. Better than nothing, right? The deductible is $7,500. After that, WFTDA will reimburse whatever costs after that.

The roller derby community is such a tightly knit one. Some may even call it a second family. 

I also am very upset to say that, after this surgery is done and I am all patched up and healed, I will be hanging up my skates. I have shed many tears in the past few hours at the thought of not being able to play derby. This isn't me calling it quits, this is me doing right by my family in the future and focusing on them rather than my own needs. I won't be returning to derby out of love and necessity for my family. I won't me playing again until such time that I can support myself financially if I were to get seriously injured again so as to not put financial strain on my parents. Family and real life first. I don't want to put my parents through any more financial turmoil than I already have by breaking my ankle. I love my parents so very much and I know they would pay any amount of money to help my brothers and myself, even if they didnt have it.

This is why I now come to you all, my second family for help. Anything, even if it is just $1 will help lift a weight off of the shoulders of my parents, brothers and myself so that we can pay for my surgery. I don't ever want to have them pay for one of my mistakes like this again.

I will still come by to watch bouts but skating competively will no longer happen. I want you all to know that I cherish the 9 months I have spent skating with each and every one of you even if we do sometimes give each other a hard time over dumb stuff. I'm glad I was in derby as a skater for a wonderful league, even for this short amount of time. 

Thank You all for everything.