Re: from - re - FERS disability retirement

[Guest guest]

,

I am so sorry the local GI is being such a butt! Take a deep breath and calm

down. I know it's really scary applying for the FERS disability retirement and

there are a lot of what-if's. I also know that the paperwork says you have to

have a statement from your doctors. However, I'm going to tell you what was

included in my FERS disability retirement application. Keep in mind, my

disability retirement was approved, not one, but two times, in a matter of days

once it reached OPM. I first applied in Dec 00 and received the approval in Mar

01. My health had improved drastically about 2 weeks before the approval so I

turned it down. I applied again in Dec 02 and received the approval in Mar 03.

I accepted it that time and retired on March 21, 03. The reason it took 4

months both times is because the package has to go through one million different

offices before it is sent to OPM. I think they actually have to fed ex to

Heaven to get God's approval! Sorry - I'm being ridiculous now, but when you

are too sick to work and getting little or no paycheck, we all know that 4

months seems like an eternity. Also, keep in mind, that even though you worked

for the Navy (I think) and I worked for the Army, OPM is the approving office

for all federal government employees. In other words, the people who approved

my disability two different times are the same people who will review and

approve or disapprove yours.

Just a note to those of you who are not fortunate enough to have a disability

plan through your employer and have to rely totally on SSD or SSI - you have my

complete and utter sympathy. When dealing with SS, waiting only 4 months for an

answer is pretty close to a miracle. There are many who must battle for 2-4

years to get an approval!

The requirements for a disability retirement for government employees is much

less stringent than for SSD or SSI. First, unlike SSD, you don't have to be

unable to perform any job, you just have to be unable to perform the job you

currently have. Your bosses do have to state that they have made any

accommodations that could be made on your behalf and still allow the mission to

be completed. This mostly has to do with the laws for people who are physically

disabled, such as wheelchair bound, etc. With cp, we all know that there are

really no accommodations any employer can make that would allow you to work full

time. I guess they could put a puke bucket and a bed in your cubicle and maybe

soundproofing so your co-workers don't have to hear you throwing up or moaning

in pain! My job required a tremendous amount of travel. For the last year I

worked, I was traveling 50% of the time. I did a lot of marketing/training

briefs in front of often huge audiences. Let me tell you, anyone who thinks

that traveling all over the country and even the world, and then standing on

your feet (in the spotlight) for up to 12 hours a day is not strenuous both

mentally and physically, has never been there! Even when I wasn't traveling, my

job was incredibly demanding and required 200% focus and concentration. We were

developing a new massive data base and reporting system for all of the army's

track and wheeled vehicles (trucks, tanks, etc.) so we had our every day job

with the old system plus the requirement to guide the programmers in the right

direction for developing the new system. I wasn't required to do the

programming as I'm not a programmer. However, as the lead system's analyst, it

was my job to understand the programming and help the programmer understand they

type of data received, the type of output (reports and such) required by our

customers which ranged from the Secretary of Defense down to the lowly, hard

working, young private who has his Sergeant breathing down his butt telling him

to get an answer YESTERDAY!

When I first got sick again, I thought that things would get better in a few

weeks. My bosses and co-workers were wonderful to me. I was given permission

to work from home when I was able. However, as I got sicker and sicker, I soon

realized that it wasn't even fair for me to try to keep working. My bosses,

co-workers, and most importantly the 'soldiers in the field' who relied on me

could not depend on me. Even when I was able to make it to the office, my

concentration and cognitive skills were no longer what they used to be. The

problems with the new system that I used to be able to resolve for the

programmers in a matter of minutes became almost impossible for me to solve

because my brain just didn't want to work the way it used to. I think this was

a combination of being very sick, pain meds, and then the steriods I was put on

when I was diagnosed with liver disease (although I'd already began the

disability retirement process when I was diagnosed with liver disease in Jan

03).

Boy, I've gotten off track again. When I applied both times for the FERS dis

ret, I did NOT have a diagnosis of cp. I also did NOT have a statement in

writing from my GI doctor. I asked him for it both times but got tired of

waiting on him and sent the package in without it. I honestly don't think I had

an actual letter from any of my doctors. Oh, wait, I take that back. With the

second app, I did have a short letter from my wonderful surgeon who did my

gastric bypass in Dec 01. He stated that I'd had numerous attacks of acute panc

and the attacks, pain, nausea, and vomiting continued despite the best efforts

of numerous doctors and that, in his opinion, I was unable to work on any job.

Other than that, I simply included labs, x-ray report, surgical reports,

procedure reports, etc. Probably the single most important thing for you to

include is the ERCP report from Dr. Lehman.

Oh, I forgot, I did have a letter from my rheumatologist and my orthopedic

surgeon with the first app. The ortho gave a big long list of all the three

ortho surgeries he'd done on me as well as my other ortho problems he'd seen me

for then wrote

'Upon evaluation of her job duties and functions, I see that there is a minimal

amount of physical labor involved and do not see any reason why she can not

perform these duties from an orthopaedic stand-point only.

However, she does have other elements that may contribute to her decreased

ability to perform the mandatory job requirements. It may be helpful to acquire

further information as to her abilities from the physicians who are treating

these specific diagnoses.

The symptomology that she experiences from her medical diagnoses in combination

with her orthopaedic difficulties may indeed present her with a decreased

ability to perform job related functions. I do wish the best for Ms. Weston. I

will continue to treat her as necessary. Please do not hesitate to contact the

office for further information if it would be helpful.'

I can't find the letter from my rheumy but I think he said something along the

lines of

Ms. Weston has systemic lupus and has recently had repeated attacks of acute

pancreatitis as well as several orthopedic problems requiring surgery. Having

systemic lupus makes the ability to 'bounce back' from any assaults on the body

more difficult, thus the combination of Ms. Weston's health problems might make

it difficult for her to work on a job full-time.

I also included a letter with my dis ret app both times explaining how much I

loved my job and why I felt I could no longer do my job. With the fed govt,

they look at what is in the best interest of both the employee and the employer,

which is probably different from the way SS looks at it. In my case, especially

when I applied the second time, it was obvious that it was no longer in the best

interest of my employer for me to continue 'trying' to work. I was occupying a

slot and coming nowhere near pulling my load. My co-workers and bosses had to

take up my slack and that was not fair, nor was it right. The govt was much

better off to approve my disability retirement, get me out of my 'slot', so my

employer could put someone in that slot who was able to be there and perform the

mission.

I would advise you to get everything you can together. If you don't have actual

letters from all doctors, don't sweat it. Include the labs, etc. One of the

things I did was to chart my labs on an excel spreadsheet with the abnormal

values in either red (high) or blue (low). I don't know if this helped, but it

was helpful to me and my doctors who were not too pompous to appreciate it. My

current rheumatologist loves it and would ask for it every time I saw her. I

quit doing it after I was diagnosed with cp because it just really wasn't

necessary.

Also, with the FERS dis app, they typically don't take the time, expense, and

effort to contact your doctors. They base the decision on what you've included.

If they don't feel there is enough info, they will send you to one of their

doctors. I never had to see one of their doctors. The package went to their

doctor and both times he simply wrote that he had nothing to add to the info

that I'd provided.

So, get all the paperwork together and get it to the first office it has to go

through. After that, all you do is wait. You will receive a letter when the

package gets to OPM. You can expect it to take about 4 months just to get to

OPM. In my case, both times, the approval letter was dated less than a week

after the letter saying the package had arrived at OPM. It is possible that in

my case, having lupus helped speed the approval. However, I will tell anyone

that if all I had to deal with was lupus, I'd still be working full time plus.

I'm not trying to minimize lupus. It can be a horrible disease and at times

deadly. However, in my case, in comparison to cp, the lupus is like a hangnail!

Of course, I do have about 1/2 of my doctors saying lupus caused the cp, so if

that's true, then I guess it really is the lupus that caused me to be unable to

work. Either way, I was diagnosed with lupus in Oct 96 and it was not until I

began having attacks of acute pancreatitis that I even considered having to give

up my career.

I do think it is important to explain why cp or SOD or acute panc attacks keep

you from working because most people don't understand. They may think it's like

having a really bad case of the flu - you are sick but then you get better and

all is well. We all know that it's often not like that with pancreatitis.

Explain the need for pain meds. Explain what they do to your concentration

level and cognitive ability. Explain how you can be okay one minute and doubled

over in pain the next. I had a few attacks at work while I was trying to work

after the attacks returned in Jul 02. One was bad enough I had to have a friend

take me to the ER. I tried to just quietly leave but by the time I could get

out of the building I had my boss and 8 co-workers hovered around me asking what

they could do. Talk about disrupting the entire team! Explain how your missing

work has impacted the mission as well as your co-workers, bosses, and customers

(if that applies in your job - in my job I had customers all over the country

and the world who depended on me to provide very extensive and detailed reports

that were very time sensitive). I think you get the idea. I really don't know

if my letters helped but it made me feel better and less guilty when I actually

put in writing why I felt I had to give up my career.

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