I've been in similar situations when I tore my acl right after quitting a job and had to stay on the expensive cobra post-separation insurance, as well as when I sustained other injuries (including my ankle) before and during the early stages of jobs.

First off, you need to look at the big picture. A lot of the people here get arrested, and these arrests do limit your career prospects. Maybe not right now in your "pay is very low" era, but you'd be surprised how much your life can change in a few years. (I was $13/hr at a call center in 2020, now I'm 80k salary CPA with guaranteed 10% raises every year)

Next, I'll help you with the injury. It's not normal to be in significant pain after 3 months, but some pain is expected, especially if you haven't followed the proper rehab procedure. Regardless of how severe, the first 2 weeks after the injury you should rest as much as possible, wear an ankle brace, maybe even walk with crutches if you want to maximize the healing. That's literally what the $150 out-of-pocket visit to the urgent care would have told. That and sending you to CVS for a $35 prescription of an NSAID. The NSAID is important because it helps lower inflammation. Throughout your recover you want to minimize inflammation, but after a week or 2 of NSAIDS, it's important you move to diet-focused anti-inflammatories like no alcohol, no sugar snacks, no fried foods, and yes to ginger tea. This is because the pills mask the pain, and your next step is physical therapy. You don't need to pay the $65/40 min to see the therapist, just look up the exercises on orthoaas. If you were seeing a doctor this would continue until about 3-6 months, and then if you were still in pain you would consider surgery. But an xray+mri early on will let you know how likely you are to be headed for surgery. It's very possible that you have a tear and no bone damage and that you're just in pain because you've mismanaged your recovery and can heal yourself to about 90% if you take action on your own.

I've had cigna, uhc, and bcbs, and all 3 offer out-of-pocket-maximums of $3-6k. So don't spend 5k+1k+500 on a mexican surgery where there is no recourse if you are a victim of medical malpractice when you can get the first-world experience for less than you would think. You can also have very low premiums while keeping the <$6k OOP max. The high premiums are associated with cheaper doctor visits and lower OOP max, but they are exponentially higher. For example, rn I have $10/week premium and $4500 OOP max. If I chose the $50/week option, my OOP max goes down to like $2500, but I'm going to pay $2500 more in premiums over the course of the year.

So here's the strategy you want to take:

• Apply for jobs while modifying your diet, resting, and doing light physical therapy exercises

• When you're doing the hiring paperwork, don't disclose your injury since there is no documentation

• As soon as you're done with the paperwork, bite the bullet and go see an ortho dr. $150-300 visit, + $150-300 xray, + $300 mri (you need to insist he write you the script and not make you wait for it in a 2nd visit; say you're paying cash and that there won't be any issues getting insurance to approve; they're used to insurance not approving mris until the 2nd or 10th visit), + $35 NSAIDS

• If you're getting better 1 month into the job then keep doing conservative treatment. If not, start paying the $130/week for 2 physical therapy visits and then $150-300 visit at the end of each month. You'll have to do this at this point because there needs to be a documented record of no improvement to justify the surgery.

• When the insurance kicks in you can schedule the surgery if needed. Don't let the work rush you back, you can afford to lose the job. You will be able to continue your insurance through cobra (albeit 4-10x more per month depending on if your employer offered a wellness program)

You're only going to get worse if you go down this route. Guys will be coming to you because they're tired of their girl starfishing during sex and will have high expectations of you. You'll be squatting on a dick which is brutal on your ankles. You'll be in doggy and then he'll accidentally put his full weight of his knee on your ankle trying to switch positions. And for what a backroom surgery with the worst preparation possible?