Steve - waiting on SSD

[Guest guest]

Steve,

Hooray for you for opening up! As most of you can guess, I can normally run my

mouth (or my fingers) quite readily. I don't have a lot of problems sharing my

feelings. As a rule, it is harder for men to do so, and even most women

(including my own daughter) have a harder time sharing feelings than I do. I'm

glad you feel you can be open and honest with us. Our group is certainly a safe

place. What's discussed here, stays here!

You mentioned 9 months with no word from SSDI. I would love to help you speed

things up in that process if I can. do you mind sharing with me where you are

at in the process of getting SSDI? (you can e-mail me privately if you prefer -

just put your name and panc group in the subject or I might accidentally delete

your e-mail - my e-mail address is karenw@...) I am no expert, but I am

sometimes good at wording things in such a way that even a person who has no

understanding of our particular illnesses would easily be able to understand why

working on a job full time is no longer possible. It may be that you have

provided the best possible info and you are just stuck in the waiting loop. I

was probably pretty lucky in that aspect. I applied for SSD on March 21, 2003.

This was my last day of work prior to beginning my disability retirement from my

job as a systems analyst with the government. Because I was still earning over

$800 a month from working until my retirement was effective, I was not eligible

to be paid SSD until I had gone 5 months without working or working but making

less than $800 per month (gross). So, even though I applied on March 21, 2003,

my first possible 'pay month' for SSD was September 2003. That meant the first

possible SSD check I could get would not be until the 3rd Wednesday of October

(this would be my SSD for the month of September 2003 - if I was approved). My

initial application for SSD was turned down. I honestly think it was turned

down because despite the large amount of medical info I provided, I couldn't get

my rheumatologist to send a letter to the SSD case worker in a timely manner.

My rheumy is a great doc, but her office is not good about letters and stuff.

The case worker kept calling me and telling me that if I couldn't 'make' my

rheumy send her a letter, she'd have to send me to a SS doctor and that she was

being to made look bad because she couldn't clear my case quickly enough without

the letter from my rheumy. She had a letter from all my other doctors stating

my health issues. My internal med doc wrote the following to the SSD case

worker

'4/21/03

Dear Ms. :

Mrs. Weston has been under my care. She has systemic lupus erythematosus,

chronic hepatitis, essential hypertension, recurrent pancreatitis, and chronic

pain syndrome. It is my opinion that Mrs. Weston is totally disabled. She has

poor prognosis for recovery is not able to function in a setting that requires

any prolonged sitting, walking, standing, lifting or carrying. I do not

recommend she work in a position that requires sustained concentration or social

interaction. She is also, in my opinion, not able to respond to emergencies.

Sincerely,

Ron Wyatt, M.D.'

Other doctors wrote similar statements. She also had inches thick of lab work,

tests, you name it. She did end up sending me to an SS doctor, which I had told

her was no problem for me. I told her I'd go to any doctor they wanted to send

me to. The doctor was nice enough. I even had a bad attack just as I was

leaving my house to go to the appt and I had to turn around and have my husband

take me to the appt and go to work late. The doctor didn't really ask me any

questions that seemed relative to me being able or not able to work. He asked

things like " How far can you walk without getting too tired or having pain. " I

told him I always had at least some pain, even with pain medication. I said on

a good day, I could probably walk a couple of blocks. On a bad day, I couldn't

even walk to the mailbox. He had me touch my toes and walk across the room. He

asked how long I could sit at a desk. I basically gave the same answer as with

the walking - good day a few hours, bad day, not even five minutes. There were

a few more questions, but you get the gest. I had this appointment in May 2003.

I received a denial letter in June 2003, ironically it came while I was in the

hospital for the second time in two weeks. Those admissions totalled 11 or 12

days in the hospital and was discharged the second time with the official

diagnosis of CP. When I received the SSD denial, I realized the case worker had

not used any information from my current doctors, even though she had info from

all except my rheumatologist. She had used doctors that had not seen me

anywhere from 6 months to 2 years prior to my filing for SSD. These doctors

weren't even my current doctors! They were in the system from when I initially

applied for my disability retirement in Dec 2000 and then withdrew the

application. The denial didn't say what the SS doctor had recommended, but I

just assumed he had said I was fine since he didn't do much of an exam on me.

I was so mad and determined that I WAS going to get my SSD approved and I WAS

going to do it without a lawyer!

Oh, another thing the initial case worker used to deny my SSD was the fact that

I am well educated and my job is mostly a desk job - or it seemed to be mostly a

desk job - in reality that was not true. I had to do a lot of traveling. I did

many training and information sessions which meant hours on my feet. I was

constantly having to go here and there in our large buildings to meet with

various people. Even if I just had to sit at a desk and twiddle my thumbs, it

would be very hard to do that when you are in excruciating pain and/or throwing

up! Not to mention that the pain medications and the steriods I had to be on

for my liver disease had an impact on my ability to concentrate and my cognitive

skills. I was no longer the assertive go-getter, able to make good decisions

often on the fly.

I completed the paperwork for the appeal process, which was not as bad as I had

feared. I provided solid examples of why I was no longer able to work on any

job and why it was in both my best interest and my employer's best interest for

me to no longer continue trying to work full time. I made sure that I let it be

known that the initial case worker didn't bother using information from any of

my current doctors, despite the fact that I know she had received the info. I

was also able to add in the official diagnosis of cp and the fact that I'd just

spent 12 of the last 14 days in the hospital. I mailed the appeal paperwork

back very near the deadline, sometime in August 2003. I received a phone call

less than a week after mailing the appeals package from a lady that worked for

one of SS judges. She said the judge took one look at my paperwork and decided

it was crazy that I had not been approved immediately. She told me he was

approving it that day because he didn't want to waste time and taxpayers money

on a hearing! She explained that it would take a few weeks to finalize the

paperwork but that I would soon get a letter telling me my SSD was fully

approved.

When I got the approval letter, it included the judge's decision letter. He

stated that even the SS doctor had stated that there was sufficient medical

information to clearly document that I was not able to work full time on any

job! The judge also included almost word for word what my internal med doc had

written in his letter. So, despite the fact that my internal med doc provided

only a short paragraph, that paragraph must have been an important piece in

influencing the judge to approve my case without a hearing even after the

initial SSD case worker denied my case!

I received my first SSD check for the month of Sep 2003 on the third wednesday

of October 2003 and have received an SSD check every third Wednesday since that

time.

By the way, with both my disability retirement application from my job with the

government and my SSD application and appeal, I included a personal letter

explaining why I was no longer able to work and how hard I had tried to continue

working despite facing increasing medical issues. I don't know if the letters

made a difference, but I really wanted the people looking at my info to know

that I was a real person who loved her job and felt great sorrow at having to

end my career twenty years earlier than planned.

If you have already appealed and are just waiting for a hearing, there's really

not much anyone can do to help you until your hearing comes up. The lady that

told me that the judge was approving my SSD without a hearing told me that if he

had said we needed a hearing, it would have been a minimum of 18 months before I

got the hearing because they were so backed up

If there is anything I can do that might be helpful for you, please don't

hesitate to let me know.

W

karenw@...