Re: log of sick days, etc.

[Guest guest]

Bob,

that is great advice. An easy to read spreadsheet with a daily entries such as

in the hospital

at home but throwing up, pain at level 7 even with pain meds, etc.

at home but too weak to leave the house

able to work for 4 hours before getting sick

and so on. I never thought of doing that. Thankfully, my disability retirement

from my job as a federal govt employee was approved in just 4 months. My SSD

was approved on appeal just 5 months after I began my disability retirement. I

was one of the lucky ones. Even though the SSD was initially denied, when I

filed the appeal the judge took one look at my case and said that it was

ridiculous that it was not approved initially and he approved it immediately

without a hearing. I've been getting SSD for a year now. If I'd had to wait

for a hearing, I'd probably still be waiting!

By keeping a log of the number of days you are in the hospital, too sick to

work, had to leave work early, etc. hopefully SSD will see more easily that an

employer would have to be crazy to hire you as long as the cp is ruling your

life.

W

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[Guest guest]

Bob,

thanks. Yes, I really was one of the very lucky ones. I was determined that I

would get the SSD approved without a lawyer. I am pretty anal retentive so I

was able to provide a lot of documentation. Also, I'm not sure how much impact

my other illnesses had on the approval. It may have been the combination of

illnesses that helped the judge decide that a hearing would be an unneccessary

waste of taxpayers money. My case worker was an idiot. I think she got ticked

because my paperwork had to stay on her desk longer than she wanted because we

never could get my rheumatologist to send anything to SS. My rheumy is a great

doc but she is horrible about letters and stuff. Her office is really just too

busy and not organized as well as it should be. The case worker was irritated

that she had to delay the decision on my case and send me to an SS doctor. When

my SSD application was denied, I assumed that the SS doctor had said there was

no reason I couldn't work. However, when I received the judge's very long and

detailed approval letter, he stated that the SS people had gone against the

opinion of the SS doctor that THEY had sent me to. The SS doc had stated

essentially what my internal med doc said - that my illnesses were chronic and

progressive, I had little hope for recovery, and that, in his opinion, I was

unable to work on any job full-time.

As for the reviews in the future, I think they are more of a formality than

anything else. I may be making light of it and I may end up being burnt in the

butt for that, but from what I understand, there would have to significant

improvement in your health in order for them to consider you no longer disabled.

There are people who take advantage of the system and work full-time under the

table while getting SSD and I think some of them have been caught and had the

SSD stopped, but short of that, I would think it would be difficult to consider

someone with a 'chronic and progressive' illness such as cp has improved to the

point that you can all of a sudden return to working full-time.

Understand, I am typically an optimist so I may be fooling myself into thinking

I have nothing to worry about. Also, my govt employee's disability is based on

what I get from SSD. 60% of what I get from SSD is deducted from my govt

employee's disability check so losing SSD would not be nearly as devastating for

me as it would be for most people since I only get to keep 40% of what I get

from SSD anyway. Mind you, that 40% is probably what buys our groceries and

pays the utility bill so it would be rough without it, but it would not be the

same as if I lost 100%!

For those of you who are fighting so desparately for what you rightly deserve,

you have my heartfelt sympathy as well as my prayers. I do not take lightly how

blessed I have been throughout this ordeal. While it has been rough and has

meant MAJOR life changes, it could have been so very much worse.

By the way, pain wise I have been doing much better for the last couple of

weeks. I have cut down on my MS Contin to the point that I am taking only 1 30

mg tablet every other day instead of 3 per day. I have to say that the jerk

surgeon I saw on Nov 3rd was right about the morphine actually making things

worse for my entire GI tract. I see my pain doc Tuesday and I am going to ask

him to prescribe something different because I do not want to take the morphine

any longer. I still have four oxy ir 5 mg daily for breakthrough pain. I have

taken anywhere from 1 to 4 a day since Nov 3rd so maybe I can make it with just

the oxy ir. However, that's a little scary because four oxy ir 5 mg on a bad

day would be like taking a baby aspirin! I guess I'll just see which way my

pain doc wants to go when I see him. I just know that I want to quit taking the

MS Contin because I think it was definitely making all my various belly problems

worse. I know all narcotics slow things down but according to the surgeon,

morphine slows things down more than any other narcotic. Is that true? I don't

know, but not taking has sure helped.

gotta go. I've got my daughter and her husband for the weekend, my eight year

old nephew for the night, stepdaughter coming for the afternoon/evening. Gotta

go with her to Verizon to sign a new contract so she can get a new cell phone.

My stepdad just got back from a 2 month business trip in Alaska, Ft Greely - the

middle of nowhere! The young adults from the church (my mom and stepdad have

adopted them all as grandchildren!) are coming over to suprise my stepdad at 6

p.m. and we're having pizza. We have to go over there for a bit. So, for me

this will be an extremely busy day and I've yet to have my shower! Oh, I forgot

I'm supposed to go with my daughter and son-in-law to look at some houses for

sale this afternoon. They are just going to look at neighborhoods and from the

outside to get an idea of where they do or don't want to live when they move to

this area, hopefully in the spring or summer.

Wish me well. I imagine I will sleep well tonight. Just thankful that I can

even consider doing all of this as a few weeks ago it would have been

impossible.

W

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