Personally i would file for disability while you are deciding on what you want to do. It stops the clock so that you dont lose earnings quarters while deciding, and may get you more back pay down the road. Peripheral Neuropathy is listed with SSDI. Its 11.14 The important part is how your symptoms, and medications interfer with your ability to work. I think that you should contact Mike Finkelstein for help in filling out the original application.
Social security has total disability for a condition that will keep you out of work for one year. They dont have partial disability. About 35% of people are approved from the initial application, which is why its important to have someone help you fill out the form that knows what they are doing. Good luck and if you have any questions, ask away.

http://www.ssa.gov/disability/profes...ical-Adult.htm

Hi - good advice above - just to clarify - Calif is one of the few states with short term disablity which you can get immediately and easily to tide you over as long as doc agrees - SSDI much longer process - you said they paid you 6 weeks - if its severance agreement then your termination date would be yesterday and you could get SDI (state disablility) starting almost immediatey with a very brief waiting period (I think its a week unless you are hospitalized) and will help you keep going if you do decide to file SSDI if doc says you can no longer work...

As Hey Joe recommended - Mike Finkelstein is a big help in the SSDI area - he helped me get mine! But again, much longer process and even if you were approved right away - you must wait a considerable amount of time for Medicare eligiblity... a must have if you need it though.....!

Hope you are doing ok today.....

..I would say a lot worse ,but I want to watch my language! I've never been terminated ,but boy have I ever been downsized, resized,re-engineered etc.etc. However you put it , it means unemployed. But it looks like you're getting some great advice from the veterans on this board. I wish you the best of luck.

Seams:

Five years ago, when Alan could not longer feel the pedals on the car, I made him quit driving. That day, he appplied for Social Security Disability.

During the application process, they make you go down to their medical department (at least that's how Alan did it).

When the guy gave him the emg, he absolutely was amazed that Alan felt nothing in his feet. They didn't even ask Alan to come down again. He was never denied, he never had to re-apply. Now I just asked him about his experience and this is what he said:

"I applied, I was sent down to their medical center, I was given the emg. The guy was fascinated that I felt absolutely nothing in my feet. The guy must have written all this down on the paperwork. Alan got the approval letter 6 months after he first applied. But, they held back the money, (It was different than when I applied for it years ago, they gave you the money retro-actively).

But in Alan's case, when he was approved and he got the approval letter, they hold back the money, and he never got it. He just got his first check (for that particular month), well he got the first check 7 months after he applied for Social Security Disability. They did not give him 6 months worth of checks. They explained "that's how we used to do it, but we don't do it anymore like that". Now this is New York City. I have no idea if this is different in other states. But since Social Security Disability is run by the government, I don't see where it would change from state to state.

So you must apply immediately, get all doctor's notes, etc. You will be given an appointment time to come in and be examined. They will send you to a room for an emg, they will also send you to a psychiatrist (that's how they did to me, and to Alan). The psychiatrist asks you if you are depressed, you fill out forms, (a lot of questions). Then the psychiatrist asks you to remember numbers, and say them backwards (both Alan and I had to do this).

Now this is 5 years ago for Alan, and 15 years ago for me. Who knows what the process is now, and if they have changed their interview and examination procedures.

Oh, every few years (at least that's how it used to be), we would get letters from the Social Security Administration, asking us to come in and get re-evaluated. Happened to both of us. We both got re-evaluated and re-approved. You don't lose any benefits during this time period.

HeyJoe gave you excellent information and that link. Click on it and get going. You'll do fine.



Melody

Well, I posted somewhere and my post is no where in sight... I am so sorry to hear this. That is SUCH a bummer, especially when you have been getting good evaluations. Where can we protest?

I do have one suggestion to offer. If you get disability, think about keeping a calendar with your doctor's appointments on it FOREVER, why you went each time, what the doctor had to say and what he prescribed. If you are approved to receive disability, this will make it much easier to fill out the paperwork necessary when you are re-evaluated, or at least this is what I think.

Using this method, my evaluations have never required any further documentation from any of my doctors and it was a lot easier to keep up with... I include a separate topsheet with the doctors' names, addresses and phone numbers...

According to the SS literature, your doctor can neither help you get it or keep you from getting it, but I would suspect that having a number of appointments showing that you are earnestly getting medical care sure won't hurt things...

I am CURIOUS about what became of my post... I did not cuss or say anything off color, although I was honestly thinking about it...

Cathie

Cathie has an excellant idea. You could combine it with a pain, balance, swelling or whatever other symptoms you are having that day log. I do that for pulmonary and pn and use different color highlighters for each. Gets kinda colorful but its easy to grasp why you cant work that way.

On second thought, it might be an even better idea to start keeping a calendar like this now.


Cathie

especially when some doc tries to bill both you and your insurance for the seventeenth time on that one quirky test that's already been paid for... Soo much of it all is tied to the 'date of service' and all those bills go thru separate corporate entities with names never heard of.....
I keep a calendar, keep all the appt cards and a Word 'calendar' [for each year] in which I note what tests were done and make sure I keep copies of any doc orders I can get my hands on....That way I have a whole slew of paper and notes that 2 months or 4 years down the road, well I can find out what I actually did or got done to and for what.

At the bottom of the calendar...I make extra notes about making appts in the future...as some offices seem incapable of actually MAKING appts for 4-6 months in advance. So I've notes 'call in july for sept appt w/doc X' kind of things...That way you can make your appts in time to get appt times that are more convenient for YOU..

With this kind of stuff - you can never have enuf good notes!
's and keep heart, strength, faith and hope always - j