Guest guest Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 Hi there! I live in New Mexico, & I'm learning what's available here as I go. Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking? I can tell you what I've been able to come up with here. First, upon getting my disability, I started asking about medicaid & food stamps. That started my search of other programs. The medicaid office said I didn't qualify for AFDC at the time b/c my son was receiving some ss $ from my disability claim. Now that he's 18 this month, that has stopped so I'm going to apply for AFDC again. I did qualify for food stamps, & my case worker helped me apply for medicare. (Food stamps are great when your kid has a never ending appetitie.) My son qualified for medicaid until he turned 18. That has helped pay a lot of his medical bills. Second, your docs office is another good place to ask for help. At least in N.M., I was able to get my 19 year old a one time appt. to get admited into rehab. That's when we found out he has HCV. So I didn't have to pay for that. (Even " one time " assistance is helpful). I also applied for the indigent fund at the hospital to pay for my bills there. That's been a huge help b/c I had bills in the thousands that they helped me pay. I didn't have to make payments during the application process. My youngest had surgery for a rod & pin in his leg from a car accident. The docs office is letting me pay only $5 a month until I can see if there's any help out there for that. I've found most places are willing to work with me. I also found help with paying my rent & utilites. Check with your local phone & utility companies about financial assistance. Next, after getting medicare, I found out they wouldn't pay for my prescriptions. So I checked with the case manager at my counseling center. She gave me info about a program that would help with cetain meds. There was also a local program that payed for one month of prescriptions for me while I was waiting for process of my application. Here's some links for you to check out. If you have anymore ?, please let me know, ok? If I don't know the answer to something, I'll do everything I can to find out for you. There's help out there. We just have to be willing to hunt for it. Keep me posted. Deanna www.socialsecurity.gov www.themedicineprogram.com (All my other sites are for the state of NM. Send me a PM if you want to go into more detail, ok?) If you get on any programs, don't assume things are done correctly. I've had to appeal a lot of mistakes made in my cases. In fact, I'm fighting to get large child support check that Child Support Enforcement says I'm not entitled to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 , unfortunately, I don't have the constant diahhrea, I only get that if I eat something really fatty, which I don't for that very reason. So, I'm not constantly tied to the bathroom every day and I can still do my own grocery shopping, but I can't do any more shopping than that as it wipes me out for the rest of the day. Most of my problems are caused by the pain medications themselves and the fact that I have bursitis in both hips that isn't curable due to the fact that it is caused by a muscle in each thigh incorrectly connected to the bone. So I have to use a can whenever I leave the house. I also can't do most of the cleaning and such. My mother does that for me when she comes up on weekends. So, you can see that my case is a little harder for them to see why I can't work. I can't work because I'm asleep a great deal of the time, My accuracy in working with numbers (a necessary part of my job), went from 99.9% to nil. They had to have someone redo my work. I couldn't make a deadline to save my soul because I spent so much time corrrecting my mistakes and I'd forget instructions five minutes after getting them, and that was when I was writing the instructions down. I was also having periods where " the lights are one, but no ones home " . I'd be at my desk, eyes open, hands frozen in mid-typing and staring into space and not respond to anything. This would happen quite frequently and would last for about five minutes or so. I didn't even know this was happening till some one at work mentioned it. I also could never be sure if I was coming in to work on any given day as I would have frequent spikes of pain bad enough to make me stay in bed all day. Of course, they weren't bad enough to go to the ER, so I don't have a medical record of this happening (stupid me). I did have a couple of days where I had to leave work because the pain was too bad, but this is not of course, in my medical record. All of this I put in my forms for Social Security. Unfortunately, SS doesn't think the loss of memory significant and my appointment with their shrink went too well because it was one of my good days when I was pretty much all there. I also have letters from two of my co workers about these things, but I don't know if SS will even read them. I'm in the process of getting narrative letters from my doctors. Kimber -- Kimber Vallejo, CA hominid2@... Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed physician or health care professional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 > Kimber, The letters from co-workers cetainly will not hurt. I Would send them everything and anything that will help to document your inaccuracy with the numbers (maybe a letter from your employer) and the fact that you zone out at work. I think a letter from the employee would carry alot of weight. I was fortunate that my employer knew how sick I was and that the business I was in it just wasn't safe for me to be there while I was impaired from the medications. I would also maybe ask your Dr. if he is willing to document your bad pain days. My Dr. would have his nurse put a note in my chart on the days I called for extra pain relief medications, or if I was just having a really bad day they would note that they had spoken with me and given telephone support or advice on what to do. I know you don't want to run to the Dr every time you are hurting so the telephone thing may be a good way to medically document your pain episodes. I wish you all the luck in the world getting your SSDI, I wish it to be soon especially with the holidays right around the corner. Simi Valley, CA > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 13, 2003 Report Share Posted November 13, 2003 Kimber, No problem. I just am the old school of thinking that you need to document everything! I have every single medical document since the onset of the horrid disease and I also have every single piece of paper regarding my SSDI claim. Remember you have the right to have this stuff. I have copies of everything SS sent to my Dr's and everything my Dr. sent them so like I said before I will more than happy to send you or anyone else in the group copies of what I have if they want it. I can fax it or snail mail it, for some reason my scanner doesn't seen to be working right now. So if anyone else wants copies of what I have they e-mail me at chamberslm@... and I will be happy to copy it and send it off in the mail or fax it. Simi Valley, CA > > > Date: 2003/11/13 Thu PM 06:14:42 PST > To: pancreatitis > Subject: Re: To > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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