I just registered for this site today, after lurking for a few hours and checking it out. I had a reconsideration of a not favorable ruling hearing a couple of days ago and I think it went well, but I won't be un-stressed until I see money in the bank. I've been retired on disability pension since Jan 2008. Out of work since 2007 on short term disability. The judge didn't ask the vocation expert anything and stopped my testimony partway through, telling my attorney that he had enough info to make his decision. My attorney says that's a good thing. I have 8 bad discs, sciatica, peripheral neuropathy, hiv, migraines, shooting pain down right arm and right hand doesn't work part of the time. Oh, and chronic kidney stones from the topomax. I also take oxycodone, tizanidine, ambien, frova, atripla, metaprolol, marinol, combivent, use a nebulizer for athsma, and crestor for lipid disorder related to the hiv.
I hope for the best, and keep positive thinking, but it's been over 3 years that they owe me for now, and I really need this income. I don't choose to sit home all day over working. I've always worked and I had a good union job with job security. I didn't give it up because I wanted to. I did it because I had to.

oh oh looks like we got another that just got @#*!!! by the "Fed".if you read some of the earlier responses here you will see that a lot of us are like you or the same situation.but me and you are probably more closer than the rest here.i to have been out of work all most as long as you have.and i have been union like you to(30yrs "lockheed").i have shooting pain down both arms and i have 4 rupture disc to,kind of like you.but glad you stoped by

Hi Steve,

Welcome to NT !

I hope the judge decides in your favor.

well i got my first disability payment last week. i am so relieved. thanks for answering my questions people!

Thank you, I certainly hope so. I'm going crazy in my head thinking that I should have said or did something different, but what's done is done I suppose.

thank you! I'm hoping for the best, and I don't know what to do if this judge denies me. I wish there were a way for them to experience the pain and issues of the applicant for 1 day just to see what it feels like and then they could make a proper decision. I'm certain that if they could feel our pain literally they would not deny people. I'm going to keep holding my breath for the next few weeks and if everything goes ok I'll get the fully favorable decision I should have received years ago.

hello steve just asking,but are you a "Vet"

You are gonna laugh, but I was actually working for many years for a healthcare company as an admin, while writing and doing comedy on the nights/weekends. So I was in clerical union. Had no problem at all getting my disability pension. It was as simple as filling out the form and submitting dr. letters, then having them revised to suit the company's wording requirements. I naively thought that with my numerous health issues that SSDI would be just as simple. I worked for a couple of years after I was hurt, until the migraines started, then I just couldn't do it anymore. Just taking the subway would bring on the migraines, and if I made it into work then the fluorescent lights would bring them on, or a particular smell, and I'd inevitably end up spending half the day in an unused conference room balled up on the floor with the lights off and door shut, dark and quiet, running to the bathroom when the nausea hit. I could work with the pain from the 8 bad discs, the HIV and it's associated issues, the athsma, everything except the migraines. Once they hit I was done. I had a very cool boss who saw me kind of going downhill and put up with my memory problems and absenteeism and illness without a complaint most of the time. (He did complain once, when I was out sick a few days and locked his yankees tickets in my desk, but that's another story).
Anyway, I'm a nervous wreck now because I've spent all my retirement money over the last 4 years buying a home to retire in etc, and I was depending on my SSDI coming through. I actually thought I would be getting pension, SSDI and LTD all at the same time. The pension covers basics but when stuff like insurance and costs related to flying to NYC for back treatments bimonthly come up, I charge everything and that's starting to add up now that it's eaten up the savings and what was left of the retirement after the house purchase. My health insurer being my retirement former employer promised they would put me in a health plan in Florida when I moved, then went to "for profit" status and reneged, leaving me stuck flying back and forth for treatment or pay 2 grand in deductibles/copays. Once I have my medicare I'll be able to look for decent care down here since I'll be dual insured. Until then I just seek emergency care here.

hey steve im from NY a place call "Syracuse".once in awhile i get down there.to visit family is all.steve with all that you have it seems kind of strange you should get turned down.i remember what my VA councilor told me last week.he seen guys with "TB"get turned down while a guy with a hang nail on his foot get it with no problem..go figureobviously they use a different type of method to deterime who eligible and who isnt.

I thought it would be a no brainer that I would be approved with no trouble, but here it is almost 4 years later and still fighting. I hope this last judge decided in my favor, because now I've gone through the retirement money and the pension isn't quite enough. I always kind of figured eventually I'd get my SSDI, so I didn't worry too much at first but now I"m stressed to death over it. I think it has a lot to do with my age, I'm 43, and applied when I was 40. Also, they sent me to their SSD doc who said I was fine after a 10 minute exam because I could raise my hands, despite the fact that my chief disabling issue is migraines.