Hello Lorilie and Welcome to Neuro Talk. I am sorry to hear that your husband John has lost his job and is in this situation. Many of us have had the same kind of delima. I do recommend that your husband go to a pain specialist. He can get his pain under control, and get another opinion on his conditon at the same time. This will help if you should decide to go for disability claim. Being treated with pain medications, and all your other documantion you will need to keep copies of. If you do seek a specialist, keep a pain journal. It will show your new doctor what John has to go through, and help with the evaluation process. I am not associated with SS or any other agency, just another member here who has gone through this process of being granted disability. This process did take a lawyers assistant that worked for an attorney who did nothing but this kind of case. This helps keep your case moving along in the system. It took an unbearable 4 years for me to qualify and numberous rejections. I qualified when I gratefully went before judge. I do wish you all the best. There is a social security forum as well on Neuro Talk to help with this issue. I wish you and your husband all the best. ginnie