A question for those on SSDI

[Lonesome George]

As most of you know I have just passed the two year journey since I applied for SSDI. The question that has been on my mind for a while now is this.....How many people here have received their disability with fibro as their main disabling condition and not having a major contributing illness associated. By major I mean cancer, ect, not just fibro, CFS and maybe arthritis.

I hope I'm not wasting my time trying with fibro as a main cause. There are a lot of things wrong with me that alone and together keep me from working, but fibro is the main ingredient. With the current feeling about fibro, cfs, and disability, I have a bad feeling I may never see disability in my lifetime.

[lastofsix]

I was approved based on Fibro,CFS,DJD OA,RLS,and several other things but no cancer or major illness. Fibro and all the other diseases associated with it alone are major enough for those of us suffering from it. Hope this helps.

[willie]

I was approved with fibro as the only condition. It took almost six years and two different lawyers but I finally got it. I had to apply twice and jump through every imaginable hoop they put in my way but in the end, you can get this. It just requires a lot of work and even more patience! Good luck, hope you get this settled soon!!!

[Lonesome George]

Thanks guys. When you had to reapply, did you lose the back pay from the first application?  I don't want to have over 2 years of my time and back benefits vanish if I have to reapply.

[denny]

No.
Retro pay goes back to the origional time of no employment.

I won mine for depression.but who knows that depression wasnt fibro?

[Lonesome George]

That's good to hear. I was afraid I would have to re-apply, take 5 years, and only get 2 years back pay. With my disabled date being 6 months before I applied, I'm now at 2 years of back benefits owed me if I were approved tomorrow.

[DEL]

Unless something happens the earliest hearing date I'll probably get is in June-this will put it pretty close to the two-year mark.
I sent in the letter about my retirement being cut in half but have no idea if it will help my case. I will either have a hearing
here in GA or a teleconference from Louisiana-seems my state is so far behind they've had to get help from other states.

There is a minuscule chance I could get an emergency hearing for a favorable result without having to talk to a judge but I know they are
as rare as virgin whores and honesty in Washington...

[Lonesome George]

From what I have learned the emergency hearings or pre-hearing decisions are for when a person has a new very serious health issue or the original has deteoriated to the point that the new or old condition will possibly result in death soon or is something that there is no debate that the condition is completely disabling.

A friend of mine, his wife had Huntington's Disease. This is 100% disabling. She was bed bound, had to be fed and bathed and everthing else you can imagine. She had it for 13 years before she died. She was denied for disability several times and finally approved after many years. She got 2 checks. The second one had to be sent back because she died before it was issued. And this was quite a few years ago.

[looneylane]

That is terrible...

[foxgrove]

That's absolutely deplorable!!!  Wow, talk about falling through the cracks.  Those are the kind of horror stories of the same magnitude as the ones they put on cigarette boxes!  Keep moving forward, keep knowing that you will win in time.  Keeping you in my prayers brother. 

[willie]

When you had to reapply, did you lose the back pay from the first application? 

When I applied the second time they went back one year from that date. I lost everything before that. I received absolutely nothing from April 1995 until November 2003. My first lawyer was a joke and told me to wait until I turned 50 to reapply which would have been past the time limit for me to re-apply. Luckily I didn't listen to him. (He didn't get a dime from me!)

[tojo]

Fibro plus a list of other problems that go with it and a list of other maladies. One doctor told me "your falling apart
' I asked if that was his final prognosis.

[chris777]

From what I have heard its "better" to have multiple issues with fibro. Unfortunately my lawyer pulled my medical history from back when I got divorced, So I think I won because of Fibro, and "depression". But I wasn't depressed at the time.  I did not want to get it because of anything but fibro and Chronic fatigue. But I was hurting so bad Financially I just took it.

Unfortunately 4 years in, they are now claiming my condition has improved. It hasn't. I don't know why they are saying this other than 2 possibilities. 1 they had one of their payroll quacks claim my condition improved when it hasn't , or 2 Because I am not seeing a shrink or getting antidepressant poison. (which I have incidentally tried multiple times for pain to no avail. )

I am still in my first level of appeal but its been over a year. I am scared to death of getting kicked off, and the lawyer said their is nothing they can do to help.

Just keep appealing no matter what.

Disability sucks, I wish I  could work, but I'm sleeping like 14- 16 hours a day every single day, I cant work like that, not to mention my hands are ruined from using a cane.

[foxgrove]

Unfortunately 4 years in, they are now claiming my condition has improved. It hasn't. I don't know why they are saying this other than 2 possibilities. 1 they had one of their payroll quacks claim my condition improved when it hasn't , or 2 Because I am not seeing a shrink or getting antidepressant poison. (which I have incidentally tried multiple times for pain to no avail. )

I have been there Chris, I know what you're going through.  I remember how insane it made me when I got told that I was perfectly capable of going back to work when there was no way at all for me to even get a job let alone hold one down.  I couldn't figure out what the heck they were talking about and then they let the other shoe drop.  They had "proof"!!

Turns out it had all started because they had seen something in my medical file that made them think maybe I just might have been faking... however remote the possibility, these guys are serious about sniffing out fakers so they hired a PI to follow me.  They got some video of me getting in and out of a van several times in one day and bending over in an isle to pick something up.  Basically, they interpreted the video to mean that I was totally fine and faking it.

What they didn't understand was that there were perfectly good explanations for what they thought they saw.  The doctor that had given them reason to doubt was actually the same doctor that had told me that I was faking and to go back to work.  She got a complaint filed with the medical board for that little stunt too!!  But, because a doctor's word holds weight, the only recourse I had was to get more good doctors on my side to counter what she had said... so I did.  Three other good doctors wrote scathing letters to my insurance company on my behalf.

As to the video they interpreted... well, that was easy to explain once I knew what they had seen.  Turns out it was one of my best days in months and I was out following Jo-Anne around.  We had purchased our van partly because it was the exact height to allow me to get in and out without help.   As to the picking sh*t up... my daily logs from the time read very loud and clear that it was one of the dumber moves I had made that year and I payed for that stupid pick-up manoeuvre for almost a month.

I had another friend get the same kind of letter from her insurance company after she took a course on fibro... "Congratulations on getting better, please contact such and such an office to help you get ready to go back to work".  Of course, she was in the same kind of situation as I... flat on her back and seriously hurting! 

In the end, both of us finally got the company to admit that taking us off was wrong.  It took me six long months... it took her longer... over a year I believe.  I was very fortunate but I believe that a lot of that had to do with my doctors being willing to back me up.  Having good doctors taking care of you is so incredibly important and it hurts me to see so many folks with doctors that say one thing and write another or aren't willing to support us when it comes to the insurance companies.

[Lonesome George]

Send some of those good doctors down here. They are in short supply in this area. I'm going to drop my nuerologist I saw last week because of his lack of concern, listening, but not hearing, and doing his own thing no matter what. I'm convinced he is in it for the money or power. 

I was contacted from the imageing center today to set up my brain MRI appointment. I asked if he had ordered a regular MRI or a contrast MRI.  Turns out just a regular. I asked if I shouldn't have a contrast MRI, explained why I went to the doctor, what I told him, and what I wanted examined for.  She said I definitely needed the contrast.  He also has pushed a sleep study on me the past 2 times I have seen him (only been to him 2 times).

I have not agreed to them. I have had two in the past, and a sleep study has nothing to do with why I am seeing him.  Mentioned this to the lady at the imageing center and told her I would gladly go for an EEG or EMG since that would have relevance for my problems.  She agreed the sleep study was not needed, but the other two could help.

So far he is batting zero. He always wants me to go to the same sleep clinic. They called me about a dozen times the last time he tried to get me to go. I believe he either owns part or all of it or gets a kick back. I have learned practically everyone he sees gets sent there for a sleep study.