Originally Posted by ginnie

Please don't give up. It takes a long time to qualify. My own took 4 years, in which I had 5 surgeries. If you have a lawyer working with you toward this, he can help get your appeals going a bit faster. The system is terribly overloaded, and almost everyone gets turned down a time or too. There is hope, and don't loose that hope. Write to your congressman too. I did that, and I do believe it helped my case. Also personal letters from your doctors to the judge can help, not just a case report full of symptoms etc. I also had every person who knew me and my medical conditions also write a letter to the judge. The personal letter from my PCP is what the judge finally listened to. Ask any detailed questions to the SS forum. More of us will respond to you. You will be in my thoughts. I wish going through this process was not so difficult. Those of us in pain with medical conditions suffer terribly during that whole process. ginnie