I was 27 when I had a pretty minor cumulative trauma work injury. After being being butchered in surgery and receiving corrective surgery, I ended up developing RSD/CRPS. I received a Fully Favorable SSDI, but it took years to get. If you'd like to visit the SSD forum, the sticky's hold quite a bit of info.

You might want to consider starting a new SSI application. SS has changed the law that allowed you to appeal your first application and start a second application simultanoeously. You would first need to research why your first application wasn't approved. Age does play a role, but if the severity of your disability truly will not allow you to perform any work, you can still prevail with a successful SSI claim.

WC is a little trickier since every state's system and laws are different.

Do you have an attorney representing you in either legal matter? If so, what is their advice?

If you're not being offered Voc Rehab from WC, you might want to explore your state Vocational Rehabilitation Agency. They might be able to determine if you capable of training for more sedentary work with accommodations for your disability, but if they're not (they'll provide testing and very likely new docs opinions as well) able to, you'll have unbiased documentation.

Having the support of all of your treating docs in your SSI application is vital as well. It is highly unlikely you'll receive SSI approval without it. Keep in mind SS doesn't care if your disability is a WC injury...

Having a WC injury CAN make SSD approval more difficult. Reports from hired gun WC docs that have never even met you, can be incredibly frustrating to disprove. They can be used as a convenient excuse to deny approval. But--as in my case, I was able to prove the severity of my disability to SS.

1/3 of all new applications are approved in the first step of the process. Some of those approvals include those who have been previously denied. Things can go much quicker if you learn about the complicated SS system upfront--not an easy or fun thing--but sometimes necessary.