[butterfly66]

I don't know if I have even posted on this forum before or not, I don't remember. So, if I have, please forgive me. This is long, bare with me.....

Okay, here's my dilema. I am almost 45 years old. I was seriously injured in a car accident in 2002. I had my femur crushed, had to have a rod put in my leg from the hip to knee, screws put in my hip and knee. I developed blood clots two weeks later and was back in the hospital for another week. It left me with that leg shorter than the other and now I have to wear an orthotic in my shoe. It took me nine months to recover and learn to walk agan with physical therapy. Finally I went back to work, mostly part time, with a lot of other problems. My other problems include: two hernicated discs in my back, spondylosis, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis - all of this found on mri, myelogram and full body scan. I also have two herniated discs in my neck resulting from whiplash, leaving my arms, hands fingers numb and tingling. In addition to all the above I also suffer migraines,hypertension,anemia,severe vit d defiency,sleep apnea,hiatal hernia,GERD and I see a therapist every two weeks and a shrink once every two months for severe depression disorder along with anxiety and panic attacks. I am on many meds for all this mess.

In Feb of 2010 I had to quit work. The stess, anxiety, pain and depression was just too much to handle anymore. On recommendation of my family, friends, co-workers, etc, I applied for SSDI. I was denied on my first application in May 2010. So, again, on advice, I hired a disability attorney and he appealed. I got denied again in August 2010. My attorney explained to me that this was normal due to my age, mostly, and that he would appeal and the next step would be the hearing before a judge, and that normally took at least a year. I asked him if he could give me his opinion of the outcome, he said he felt confident that I have a 90% chance of winning. (a little background on myself - I have a high school education and was working in a doctor's office as the medical coder for 7 docs for thirteen years. I can't sit for long periods of time, but my biggest problem is I can't focus and concentrate for long periods of time either. It has taken me a couple of hours just to type this so far.) Between my migraines,pain, anxiety and depression, its all I can do to even drag myself out of bed some days, and as far as leaving the house?!?! ha.

Today I received a letter from social security that I have an option of a video conference instead of face to face with a judge. It tells me that my attorney would be present with me while watching/talking to the judge.

I haven't contacted my attorney yet to discuss this with him. I was just hoping someone has experienced this and/or get some opinions of outcomes with video conference versus an in-the-room conference. Do you rhink I even stand a shot at getting approved with my all my diagnosis? (I do have records from p doc, all xrays, scans, mri, neuro docs,therapist etc.)

Thanks to those who actually took the time to read all this, I know it is a lot. I'm just freaking out about all this and just thinking about having to go before the judge has made me sick to my stomach and I feel a migraine coming on. This has been so stressful. Thank you eveyone, God Bless.....

[echoes long ago]

one thing to consider is the approval rate by ALJ's in your area of your state and compare it to approval rates for the area that the ALJ handling the video hearing has. if you do a search on this site you can find the approval rates by states and offices.

[finz]

I'm groaning just thinking about the pain I was in the day of my ALJ hearing......getting up on little sleep, showering, getting dressed in 'decent' clothes, the ride to the train station,the jostling of the train, being approached bt pan handlers as I stood, in the dark of early morning (in a not so great section of Boston near what was called the Combat Zone) )waiting for the courthouse to open, sitting on the hard bench trying not to fall asleep, wondering if I would be too spacey during the proceedings if I took extra meds, the hearing itself wasn't too bad, but then had to walk back to the train station, more jostling on the train, waiting til my husband could pick me up when he was through with work.......it was a HORRENOUS day. I was bedbound for the next several days......

A video conference sounds much easier.

Best of luck to you