I did join a book club Starz. It's at my local small library. They choose a book (usually a women's title or romance) once a month then meet the last Friday of the month. I can get really exhausted easily though so I take a nap in the afternoon before the meeting.

I love the women in the group, they're funny and gossip more than they discuss the book. And booze. They bring booze and snacks to the meeting. It's just hilarious.

I don't even care for stories like this normally but I'm reading them to be in the group. I like historical fiction or books about other parts of the world so I can learn about other cultures.

Wiz, that's hilarious! Sounds like my kinda book club!!

I can almost see a book coming out of this book club experience. It would be a hoot! Woman enjoying her life in the work force gets diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and has to stop working. She doesn't want to become a hermit so she looks for socialization outlets. Finds this book club and it all seems innocent enough until she goes to a couple of the meetings and finds out that this is just a glorified cocktail party!! The women there come from all sorts of backgrounds an social levels. Some get into mischief after the meetings (due to the booze they consumed while discussing the book) and the others rescue them.

I think it would be a best seller!!

I still hadn't received a letter from social security so I called them again on Friday. Apparently the person I spoke to must have been lying to me. They show that my application is still pending, needing further information.

Why would a person do something like that? Did it just look too complicated to her to investigate so she was just trying to get me off the phone? I don't get it.

They sent me to an extension of a person in charge of my case so I left her a voicemail message. I won't hold my breath that she will get back to me.

I'm so confused by everything right now.

Wiz, I'm so sorry you're having to deal with such incompetence. It's frustrating especially when your quality of life is affected by someone else's mistakes. I hope she gets back to you promptly.

I'm so sorry you're having to apply for SSDI.

Many mistakes are made in these vast systems. The person who told you your claim had been approved may have been looking at a computer screen that said you had been approved, and later on it changed and said it was pending. Someone somewhere decided that more information was needed, maybe.

I'm just guessing but it's based on the problems I've seen people having dealing with computers and with lots of information coming at them. I don't think anyone intentionally lied in this case. Social Security is an overloaded system, and it's amazing to me that they do as well as they do.

I hope they told you WHAT information they still need. You might be able to expedite the process if you know that.

If you have a neuro who can write a supportive letter, that might help, but that's probably already been done. Any other doctors who might chime in with more supportive letters--ophthalmologist, ENT doctor, primary care doctor, etc.?

Have you received word yet on your application status? I am hoping that you finally got the approval for SSDI.

No approval yet. It has been a huge mess all along. The last time I called the SS help line, the person I spoke to said my application was just sitting there and couldn't get processed. She said, quite apologetically, that she thinks I will have to start my application over again.

So, feeling defeated by the whole process, I called a disability attorney. They were able to confirm what she said. They logged into the system while on the phone with me and could not see my application pending either.

Luckily, I had the printed form after submitting it with the application number. So they said they would take my case but I would have to pay them up to 25% of my settlement if I get approved. They sent me the paperwork and I sent them the printed copy. They said they would try to get that one to go through, effective December 2016, but if they can't they will have to start over with a new application.

If they can get the original to go through it will mean more money for them and the back pay for me so I'm crossing my fingers that they might be able to fix it. I'm not going to hold my breath though with all that has happened along the way so far.

I truly wish I could afford to just wait until I was 67 to get my full SS amount but I really need the medicare coverage. I'm paying for cobra through my former employer and even that is expensive. After that runs out I'll go on my husband's pension insurance plan and that is close to $800 per month just to add me on.

I'm just so tempted to just drop the insurance and wait it out but then I would have some sort of health catastrophe for sure and we would end up homeless.

The thing is also, I don't appear to be that sick like so many with MS. But I only have maybe two good hours a day. And I always try to put up a good front. In the neighborhood we tell people that I'm retired. I don't like to explain the MS, it's too stressful to me when people look at me like I'm just being lazy. I've never been a lazy person in my life, I've worked since I was 12 years old except for the years of being a hard working stay at home mom with our boys.

The good thing is I've really focused on budgeting. I've cut expenses drastically. My brain is still fairly good at handling money though I've made some mistakes even with that.

I feel like I should write an essay about all of this when it's over. "How not to apply for disability in 12 easy steps".