newly diagnosed

[Guest guest]

I have not been working for about two years now because of pain and

fatigue. I also suffer from migraines and those of you who have those

know what a pain in the butt they can be and how they tend to show up

more when you are already feeling down. Today, after a couple of

years of consistently repeating myself, I finally got to see an

internist/rheumatologist and was officially diagnosed with RA and

carpal tunnel syndrome in my non-dominant hand. Last year I applied

for disability and was denied, this year I'm hoping when I get my

appeal hearing the RA " label " will help me get SSD. RA and all the

stuff that comes along with it sux big time,,, but what seems to make

everything worse is that I'm only 28 and no matter what I seem to say

to people, they don't listen to me. My doctor thought it was all in

my head, I had to bring back up people with me to my apts. Finally I

complained enough (I used to have a boss who said the squeaky wheel

gets the oil) and my GP started running the right tests. The

Internits/rheumy I saw today was very understanding and instead of

saying " you're 28, you should be fine " like everyone else does, he

said " you are a baby, the age of my kids, I really wish you didn't

have to be here " . It felt nice to maybe not be understood, but not

looked at like a liar. I'm so tired and really I would like people to

say " it'll be ok " but I'll settle for " it won't be this bad forever " .

My age seems to be the thing that is killing me, I couldn't get SSD

because they said I was so young, nothing is probably wrong with me,

I couldn't get legal help to appeal that, because the local legal

assistance program said that there were older people who needed their

help, so i had to appeal alone. Even my family doesn't ask me how I'm

doing because they think its all in my head, I'm too young. Thank god

for my fiance, if I didn't have him and his belief in me, I wouldn't

be able to stand it. I have two beautiful children too, but sometimes

I think they'd be better off with someone better than me. I need

support and as much information as possible on how to win my SSD

claim, I do deserve it... when I did work I would work 2-3 jobs at a

time... I'm so frustrated.. any help would be appreciated. Thank you.