 |
Member
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Way down yonder in the Land of Cotton
Posts: 231
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Way down yonder in the Land of Cotton
Posts: 231
|
SSD process stinks!!!
Mark,
Don't worry about being denied. I was denied 3 times, and I could NOT climb up ladders or skip or jump or whatnot, as my RSD originated in my lower body. Their excuse for me? I could answer a telephone.
It is all crap. I believe that they do this to try to weed out the folks that might not really need it. Problem is, they wind up hurting folks that really and truly need it instead. If you can't work, you can't work, and getting jerked around for 6 months, 18 months, or 3 years or more by SS isn't going to change that fact. In the meantime....what are you supposed to do for insurance, and food and what not? In my case, that was my only income, other than the help that my parents were/are able to give me. And, it didn't matter that I had two young children at home that depended solely on ME to cloth and feed them and keep a roof over their head. The SSD system is seriously flawed.
Ok..putting away my soap box now, and going to try to dredge my memory to see if I can come up with any pointers or help for you.
I don't know how different each state does their SSD stuff. Even though it is "Federal" it all goes through "State" stuff first. Or, at least it does here in AL. I can tell you that here, I HAD to see a shrink before I could do anything. They insisted. They even set me up for an appointment with one of their own, because they were so far behind in getting my medical records (another thing that will drive you CRAZY with the SSD folks...no matter how much stuff you send them, and how many times they request it, and how hard you try to make sure that they are up to date, they will ALWAYS be behind...and pretty far behind. It is maddening!), that they didn't realize that I had gotten into a Pain Management Clinic that had not only a Doctor that treated the Pain issues, but also a Shrink that helped with the psychological issues that chronic pain brings (ie depression....at least for me). Once I got that cleared up, and they got yet another set of the records that had his notes and what not in them...they canceled the appointment that they had made for me with their own shrink. They did this again when I got recertified a couple of years ago...only this time, I hadn't seen a shrink for a while, and so I had to go and see theirs. It was fine, he was a very nice man. So nice and good in fact, that I asked him if he was taking any new patients! LOL..no...he was basically retired, and only did the SSD thing. *Sigh.
They will do this type of thing for physicals, and other types of tests and specialists that they think you need to see for them to be able to make a determination in your case. Look for this to happen, especially now that you are going to appeal their first denial. Don't get too worked up about it, because, like I said..this just seems to be what they do to most folks. (They even did similar stuff like this to my x husbands uncle, who had almost died and suffers from a sever head injury. I was appalled and amazed when he got turned down for his benefits the first time, and he wasn't any "spring chicken" then, either! GRRRRR)
Another hint...especially since your are having such troubles with your hands. You know those gawd awful forms that they send you, asking you crap like "how has your life changed since your injury/illness?" and "what things can't you do for your self, and what do you need help with now since your injury/illness?" that is about 10 pages long (exaggeration...kinda)? Well...get used to seeing that, because they send that GD thing out over and over and over again! I don't know about you, but it made me even more depressed every time that I had to sit down and answer those gawd awful questions and really THINK about how everything has changed, and all of thing things that I have lost (it is really a very negative set of papers, in my opinion! GRRRR again). You might want to make copies of it once you get it filled out...so that you don't have to sit there and think about it so very hard, or worry about your answers varying or whatever. I know that sounds weird, but I started to get very paranoid about the whole thing. It was almost like they were wanting me to answer something differently then I had before, or soemthing? With rusty brains and meds that muddy our thinking....I just got all worried about the whole thing. I also killed my hand filling out the stupid things, and made myself so depressed....it was awful. It wasn't until the next to the last set that someone suggested making a copy to make things a little easier (I still had to fill them out..so my hand was still crap. LOL).
Jewells and Ada are right....You have suffered from Depression, and you need to make SURE to tell them that! You need to mention it as much as possible, and explain how IT has messed up your life, also. When I first won my SSD, I won it not for RSD (I didn't find that out until later...) But for "Chronic Pain", "Back Pain", and "Depression". RSD has since been added to that list, when I got recertified. So, use whatever you can to win this, because I am here to tell you that THEY most certainly will use what they can. As you have already seen.
Climbing ladders...! Sheesh. Yes. Ok. You can climb a ladder...how? When you can't really hold on to it...and...exactly what are you supposed to DO up there once you reach the top, since you can't use tools and what not? Stand there? Spit on people's heads? Let folks look up that grass skirt? It makes absolutely NO sense at all. Climbing ladders. Yeah....like...can you climb a ladder after you have taken you meds? And...how often do you have to take you meds? How do they affect your balance and everything else? Those are the ways that you take care of that climbing ladder crap. That is how I took care of the answering phone crap. Yes..I can answer a phone, but at the time I was taking Neurontin, and I was a drugged out zombie in a permanent brain fog. So, I answer a phone "Hello?" And do what afterwards? Remember to push some button to send a call to some specific person? Yeah...right. Good luck there. And you want me to DRIVE to get there? Or...I am supposed to get a job paying me so much that I can hire a driver? Again..yeah right. They are a bunch of Stupid Heads, as Meghan would say! LOL
Oops. That soap box tried to slip back out there again. That is what happens when I get up to take a break and my brain goes on thinking about stuff. LOLOL. Also why these things wind up being SOOOO long lately. So, I reckon that I am going to end this here. If I think of anything that might be helpful, I will let you know. The best thing that I can tell you is to just dont let them get to you too badly...and know that you aren't the only one that they have treated stupidly like this. It is their "thing". Keep your sense of humor...and that Chin Up!
Love and ((hugs))
Jose
PS...I wear a ladies 12 shoe. You could do an ugly step sister thing and borrow a pair of my shoes and "make them fit" like Drucilla did, or tried to do, in Disney's Cinderella. ROFL.  Good thing that you kept that Cocoanut Bra, Huh? Maybe a total sex change isn't necessary? Maybe just...um....a little "strategic tucking" would work? 
ROFLTIPMP!!
((Hugs))
Jose
|