Re: beyond depressed - disability turned down

[Guest guest]

Hi Kris:

 

Get a lawyer who specializes in social security disability.  I did.  You do not

pay them unless they win your case.

 

                                            Lou

[Guest guest]

Kris you are not alone you have this group, a surplus of shoulders.

Sit down and take a deep breath. The disability system sucks it is

demeaning and humiliating. An attorney is a good start, they will

help you with the steps you can take to improve your chances for approval.

I applied in 1994 & 2001, both cases went through the hearing and

appeals process and ended in denial. I applied a third in 2007, I am

waiting on my hearing date. This time my lawyer is also a nurse, she

seems to be very knowledgeable.

Any questions ask, I'm not shy. Take care of you.

Big gentle huggles,

Di in Feasterville-Trevose, PA )

dimntd on AIM, IRC, ICQ & Yahoo! Messenger

Email me privately if you'd like the link to my blog or web page.

khfour2 wrote:

hi, I have been mostly a " lurker " , reading the posts, in my own shell

and dealing with my own pain quietly and inwardly. I have been

officially diagnosed with Fibro, deg. disc disease, Raynauds,

Osteopenia, depression, and I have osteo arthritis in my knees and

back. I have had to quit my job, worked at home for awhile, had to

quit that, and now do some internet stuff while I can. Take lots of

breaks and do what I can. Basically I have shut myself off from all

of my family & friends (they don't understand the pain anyway), my

support group is held too late at night for me to attend and I pretty

much feel like a hermit at this point.

[Guest guest]

Hi, Kris,

As I understand the system now, the first appeal is reviewed by the

same person who denied it the first time. Big surprise, 95% are denied

again. However, there is another appeal that you can make without an

attorney if you want to. This is basically all of the medical info that

went into the first application (updated of course) but it goes to a

different address for review by a different person.

That said, I do think you would be better off getting an attorney.

There are many who specialize in disability law - a senior center near

you may have a list of them. The amount they can charge is set by law,

so don't bother shopping around; find one you are comfortable with and

confident in and stick.

IMO, with the big budget deficits in the program, the SSA is denying

everything they can. (Around the time I was getting mine heard by an

administrative law judge - ALJ - I heard of a quadrapegic who was

turned down.

The ALJ hearing is likely to be your best bet at getting the initial

ruling reversed. But you have to jump thru all the hoops first, which

means another appeal to SSA.

If you do wind up in an ALJ hearing, SSA will have expert witnesses.

There will be someone there to swear that, if you can't stand for 8

hours, can't even sit up for 8 hours, then you can stand + sit for 8

hours and be a cashier at some cafeteria, with 75,000 such jobs

available. They will also have some medical expert (likely not a

doctor - mine was a pharmacist) swear that you can't have CFS, don't

have arthritis, and the disc disease can't possibly be causing any

pain. Be ready with not only medical records (which your attorney will

need a complete set of anyway) but with abstracts (full articles if

possible) that demonstrate that most people with your condition(s) are

in fact disabled. These should come from the medical literature -

PubMed is a good source and allows free searches - and MedScape is also

a reputable source, although not an original medical literature

article. (In my case, the " expert " pharmacist swore that I could not

have CFS because I didn't have an elevated EBV titer - two articles

including the CDC definition stating specifically that an elevated EBV

titer was not necessary for a CFS diagnosis immediately turned the tide

in my favor - & after the ALJ filed his opinion, said " expert " was

never used again. We can still win some:-) The specific articles can be

looked up and forwarded to the ALJ later, if they manage to surprise

you at the hearing.

Hang in there. There is hope - over 50% of denials are overturned by

the ALJ if they are appealed that far. And when your disability is

granted, SSA has to pay you the full benefits that you would have

received had they granted it immediately. (The attorney will take only

something like $2500-$3000, depending on how much that has been raised

in the last 15 years.)

Jerry

[Guest guest]

sounds so discouraging at most, but like you said, the govm't is not going to

give any money easily. I wish I had kept better notes when all of the pains

started in 2000, that is when my symptoms began and I went through the beginning

stages of tests, shots, different treatments, etc. I thought I would be treated,

healed and get on with my life. Had I known then what I know now! I have to

really dig deep and try to get all of my medical records from all of my doctors

and different therapists. My brain certainly does not work well these days and

this is going to take some time but one day at a time, I will get through it.

Leg work has never stopped me.

I certainly am in a better state of mind now. getting that piece of paper

stating that " there is nothing wrong with you " just so upset me. I am so tired

of trying to validate myself to everyone and the medical professionals are the

ones that should be on our side but they are not. We are supposed to be able to

rely on family, but they don't understand either. It is tiring, it is

frustrating, it is lonely. I needed a couple of days to wallow in my

frustration, but I past my funk, and moving on to action!

Thank you to all who have helped with information. I will certainly be using

this info to get something going. And hopefully I will no longer be a " lurker " .

I know I need to talk more with people who understand.

Thanks All!

Kris

[Guest guest]

I had an ALJ court hearing and mine lasted only 15 minutes.  The Judge was not

there.  It was done live over a TV.  It was only my attorney in the room with me

and the person who does the dictation.

 

I did not have no other vocation expert or anything.  In fact, the attorney just

went over my records and the Judge listened.  There wasn't even really any

questions.

 

                                                    Lou