Lisa,

First, I am sorry to hear that you have the stress of your SO and his mom on top of all of your pain. I don't have RSD, but I do have chronic pain from other sources, and stress always makes me flare, so I hope that you can relieve the stress to prevent/stop any type of stress flare you may be having.

I am on SSDI - social security disability. When I applied for disability, I applied at the state level, was approved for state disability within 30 days, and continued to get state disability while my SSDI application was being processed.

From what I know about SSDI and state benefits for disability, I am pretty sure that you can NOT apply for benefits if you are still working. In the world of disability benefits (state or federal) the word "disability" is a legal term that essentially means that your medical problems are severe enough to prevent you from working.

Yes, there are people who receive benefits and then go back to work at a part time job, but in order to continue to receive their benefits they must work minimum hours and the must stay below a certain income level - if they go above a certain income level (I believe it is in the $800 a month range) then their social secirity disability benefits can be stopped or suspended.

When you apply for federal disability benefits the Social Security Administration has a rule that says something like - you have to be unable to work now and you have to be expected to be unable to work for the next 12 months. Your doctor has to fill out paperwork that says you are unable to work now, and that he/she predicts that you will be unable to work for the next 12 (or more) months due to your medical condition(s). If you are still working right now, then no doctor can say that you are unable to work, and no doctor can predict that you will be unable to work for the next 12 months. (that info should be on the social security website somewhere).

So, if you are still working, and you are earning a living and supporting yourself, I don't believe that you would qualify for any type of disability benefits, and I believe that you would be denied right away. Not because of your medical conditions, because RSD and TOS are conditions that are disabling, but you would most likely get denied simply because you are still able to work and support yourself.

Social Security looks at the way your medical problems affect YOU. RSD and TOS can and do prevent other people from being able to work and RSD and TOS are disabling midical conditions. But for YOU personally, they have not caused a disability because you are still able to work. They may cause a disability in the future, but right now they do not prevent you from working.

You said something above about your SO's mother who said to "keep applying" if you get denied because it will eventually get approved??? and you will eventually need to be approved??
Well, honestly, I believe that if you do something like that you would get labeled as one of those "fakers" who are just looking for "free money" and trying to scam the system.... and then if/when you really can not work anymore and you really do need to apply for disability benefits they would probably disbelieve anything you tell them if they had already labeled you as one of those "fakers".

You aren't a faker. You have real medical issues that could lead to you needing disability benefits in the future. If you do become unable to work, you do not want to have any problems getting approved for the benefits.... and applying for benefits over and over again while you are still working could cause problems in the future if/when you really do need to apply due to your medical problems preventing you from being able to work.

Here - I found the SS difination of disability-
*bold added by me*
I found it here-
http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/page6-2.html


I hope that helps,
Liz