Originally Posted by jannaw

Hi Dan,
I didn't contact Mike but I did my research and bought Disability Workbook by Douglas M Smith at amazon.com, I filled it out and followed it with the exception of a face to face meeting with the SSDI agent. We did that by phone and she told me it would be at least four months before I got my first denial. In the meantime I found a company called ALLSUP on the internet and called them, they worked with my disability company and the SS folks. The agent told me that they have a 54% success rate the first time with claims, I believe that having PN, Rheumatoid & Degenerative disc disease was a major factor. Oh, and of course my age, I'm turning 53 next week after working all my life since age 15 and I still do part-time work from home taking pledges so it's not like I'm a good candidate for rehab??? I don't know what it was but I feel very fortunate and less stressed now.
Weird thing is I got no paperwork from SSDI indicating I was awarded benefits, they lady said, "Um, it looks like someone forgot to que the letters, I'll do that now and you'll get the paperwork sometime next week", works for me....