I have been out of work since I had my son in July 09. I tried when my maternity leave was over, to go back to my job in OCT 09...unsuccessfully. My job was awesome, I worked from home on the computer, I only had to go into the office once a week for a few hours, and made wasy great money. But the stress knocked me out..by my second day back, I couldn't see or type. It was terrible, so I filed for Soc. Security. I was initially denied, with them staing that I would be recovered by Oct 10. I filed for appeal in Feb '10, but the office I was assigned to, is part of a pilot program, so I was immediately appealing by ALJ hearing. So here we are almost a year later, and I finally got my hearing date! April 12 2011!!! I'm so nervous, but I'm so excited to finally be moving onto the next step. I really need them approve it soon because my Cobra insurance is running out of time...Does anybody have experience with this process?

Also recently I have been having a particularly bad flare of my MG. I've never been stable, or strong, but compared to the best period I had since getting sick, this is like going backwards 80%. My husband did a little research, and we discovered that the Nuerontin I've been taking for the last 2 months, has had serious adverse effects on MGers...It seems around 2-3 months into the rx, is when it starts acting up. My MG started getting really severe about 2 weeks ago, to the point the other day, I couldn't pluck my eybrows even tho my arm was resting on the couch. My hand didnt want to hold the tweezers, and my lower arm wouldnt stay up. My hubby called the pain Dr, who didnt believe the study we found held any merit,(it was from some Gov. website) but agreed I should stop taking it, especially since it's not helping the pain. He did tell us that he might want to try me on Cymbalta instead, but wont prescribe anything until I go in for an appt. I live 8 hours away and try to make it back to see all my dr's every other month, but wont be going back for at least two more months.. I moved here about 5 months ago for my husbands job, but until I know we will be here permanently, I love my Drs, and would rather drive to visit and schedule my appts when we can make it, than find sub-par drs who don't know my disease, just to have them closer. Sux that my pain dr seems to be more interested in collecting the fee for my appt than actually helping me. Hopefully I'll get it all sorted out soon!

Jessica