First of all I want to tell you that I will be praying for you and your family. I have so much that comes to mind as I'm sure many of us have. I hope that it is of some encouragement.

- Find doctors who you are comfortable with, give them a chance but be wary. In the end if you aren't okay with them you are already in a position where they aren't helping you. God know we don't need more stressors.

- Find out where you are with work credits from soc security. It doesn't put you at any disadvantage if you inquire, you'll get a statement like every 5 yrs but you want to know how much credit you have NOW. It will also tell you your disability income as well as your total benefit if you have children. This will be in addition to what you get and it will be
approx 1/2 of what you get. Ex: your benefit:1,000.00 mo. and 2 kids = 500.00 additional (each will get 250.00) you will be named custodian of their benefit. This is all saying that you have enough credits and you are disabled.
Why not do this now even if you do go back to work. IT DOESN'T COST ANYTHING TO FIND OUT AND YOU DON'T LOSE ANYTHING.

-meds are a big one, what works for someone else may not work for you. You also may experience differences in how well the med works for you by many factors that will affect it.

It sure sounds like you definitely have a full plate. I do not feel that you should try to go back to work. A nursing asst?!! You are in the middle of a crossroads in your life. The knee injury alone-I'm sure there are those who would say, oh heck with it you gotta tough it out, etc. but I for one don't think that a job is worth it. I'm not saying it's not going to be rosy. If you can comfortably do the job, go ahead. If you can't, don't make this worse. you may in fact end up finding out that later on you can re-apply after you find out that this is not the health crisis that it seems to be, again I don't know. If you can as you say "resign" now and then apply later when you are well, you haven't lost anything. You also haven't placed all this stress on yourself with this going on. If you don't end up going back so what.

Finally, (whew!!) if you qualify on credits for disabilty and this ends up being pd or otherwise, apply ASAP with a lawyer's help. With a lawyer's help. It doesn't cost you anything and if you get turned down, appeal and re-appeal it gets easier as it goes on in the process.

No one says it's going to be easy but there are brighter days ahead.

Sorry it's so !@#$ long.