Ok....to be clear (because I got overly excited when reading Janke's post hoping that might mean my monthly benefit would go up when I reach full retirement age, which looks like I was reading something into it which just wasn't there after checking out Mz Migraine's link)

If you are disabled younger than retirement age and have your quarters in, you apply for SSDI. If you are disabled and low income, you apply for SSI.

If you are disabled, have your quarters in, and are old enough to apply for early retirement you would apply for SSDI because that would mean more money than your lowered retirement rate.

You are eligible for Medicare 24 months after your recognized disability date OR when you are 65, whichever comes first.

If you are collecting SSDI, when you reach full retirement age your benefits will stay the same, but the source of the payment switches to SS Retirement from SSDI.

Is that correct ?

If you are disabled, but not approved for SSDI yet, and old enough for early retirement, can you take early retirement to get some benefits coming in while you wait on the SSDI decision and still bump up to the full SSDI rate when you get approved ? What about if you decided to take early retirement benefits and THEN became disabled ? Then would your SSDI rate be slightly lower than the first example because you weren't working recently and the income from early retirement is less than your past salary ?

Sorry to hijack your thread Melody ! I see that you did get your answers.....and some of them triggered questions for me !