I was able to work with TOS for 11 years, then it got worse, my arteries became compressed, I had to have surgeries and haven't worked in more than a year. I'm getting disability...it went back starting the day I stopped going to work.

I had a neuropsych eval that documented the amount of pain that I am in very well which helped my disability case.

If I had stopped working when I was 23 and got TOS, I would only have received SSI, at $733 a month for disability. Because I worked I get SSDI, which is much better for many reasons and is based off my earnings, if you have a spouse their income doesn't count against your disability payment when you get SSDI rather than SSI, etc...

If you get student loans and later get disabled and are disabled for more than 5 years your student loans can be forgiven if you have a doctor fill out a form.

Generally, I feel glad that I worked in spite of the pain for all those years...I'm a few classes off from my master's and feel like "what's the point?" though, but maybe next year....unfortunately, my TOS has gotten worse in the past couple of weeks with the weather getting cold again.