My Knee Surgery

Greetings friends and family,
As many of you know I have a strong passion for skateboarding. This passion has given me peace, strength, and the opportunity to give back in ways I have never thought of. It truly is a gift to my life and many others.
In November of last year my company insurance was discontinued. I went without for a while but knew I needed something in case I had an emergency or some kind of illness come up. I ended up getting the only thing I could get at the time, subsidized insurance. It’s basically what people add to their insurance when it doesn’t cover as much as they would like. I can’t even claim it as insurance at the end of the year in order to avoid the penalty for not having insurance.
In early July I noticed I had some knee pain after skating. I waited a few days for the pain to let up but it did not. A few weeks went by without skating and lots of resting my legs, it still didn’t get better so I decided to go to the doctor. He told me I had runners knee but we opted for the MRI. The MRI came back and I was called over the phone and told I had a torn meniscus. The insurance was covering a lot of my doctor bills thus far. I talked to a surgeon about a week ago and we discussed surgery, my only concern was the cost. Still, after discussing it with billing they said that as of now I was quoted $0 but I may be liable for $800. I decided that was reasonable and made the appointment to have the surgery on the 30th of August. The hospital where I will have the surgery called me yesterday and told me that their costs for the surgery totals $8,000. This $8,000 is broken down into 6 payments. One of which I have to have the day of surgery. I have just enough to do just that with nothing left over.
I’m humbling myself and asking for help so I can pay for this surgery and get back to doing what I love the most in this world. As many of you know i have been working with switchlife.org. I have been helping them out, giving lessons, and whatever else I can do in order to push their cause. This injury keeps me from providing a service to them and these kids! I feel weird about asking for help but, I really don’t know what else to do. My goal is to get as close to $6,666 as possible. I know I probably won’t reach that but anything helps. Thanks for your consideration to make things easier for me.
Much Love
Chris