My attorney filed an OTR request a little over 2 months ago and I still haven't heard anything from SS as of yet. My hearing is scheduled for August. So, does anyone have any experience with this? can they deny it right before my hearing, like when i am there, or simply approve me or make me wait or just ignore the OTR like it never happened? I am so nervous about it coming down to this last month....I know that my age of 35 is playing into this hugely, but with weekly seizures, not controlled even with multiple meds, bipolar, depression, anxiety and migraines, I am left completely unable to function even with daily personal activities most of the time. Thanks for any and all input.

I was denied an OTR before even getting a hearing date. I too am young. I am 38. I have multiple issues:

I need double knee replacement, I have tricompartmental Osteoarthritis in both my knees, Popitiel Cyst behind knee, Chondromalacia, depression, Anxiety, PTSD, RSD, Degenerative disc disease of the entire spine with 4 Herniated and 3 bulging discs, Thecal sac and spinal cord impingement, Arthritis of the toes, Shoulder impingement syndrome, PCOS, Asthma, High Blood Pressure, I have MTHFR blood disorder which is causing several DVT's and PE's, And from being in the hospital so much I contracted MRSA. I have been fighting MRSA infections like crazy. And had my gallbladder removed only to have stones get lose and get caught in the bile duct to my liver and had to have my liver operated on the next day and when they operated they punctured my pancreas and I ended up in the hospital on feeding tubes for a month with severe pancreatitis.

And they said I was denied my on the record..... This all with 3 RFC's and an additional form filled out from doctors stating that I can never work again... But they said hey you are only 38 go work in pain and agony.

yes that"Age"thing is abig hurdle.its one of the criteria.the others are:your education
what kind of work you use to do
can you stand or walk,etc
iknow they did all that to me.

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Micknef,

You will often get more advice and specific comments on your situation if you start your own thread rather than post on other threads.

If the gist of documentation on your RFC's simply stated that you can never work again, that could explain why you have been denied. The RFC's request info on your physical abilities, NOT your doctors' opinions.

Good luck at your hearing, Nicd !

Thanks, finz. I am a nervous wreck. I do wish I could explain to the judge that the seizures do not ask my age, education or work history before they attack me about every other day. But I know that would hurt me and come off as a smart butt. As it stands now, the amount of meds I have to take and the large doses, I sometimes, and pardon this grossness, have to literally swallow them right back down after they come back up as to not waste them. My body does not want to take them anymore, but I have to. It's just so much. Then, I have to lay at an angle as to not move to let them quietly do their work, which, clearly, they are not. I am so stinking stressed. This whole disorder has ruined my enritr quality of life. Because of it, I will no longer be able to have children, I have suffered and severed family relationships, and cannot keep relationships because of the miscommunications associated with all of these problems. IT SUCKS and it sucks bad. I have a good lawyer, and he got a friend of mine ssd based on narcolepsy alone. I have faith in him that with all of my disorders and no end in sight, that he can do the same for me, but I still can not help be be so scared at the end result of being denied again while my first one sits and waits in a federal court. When I got the first denial letter for this claim, it was based on the fact that ss said that they said i can not work at this time because of it, but that they did not expect it to last a year. well, here it is, over a year later, and it has simply gotten worse, with my physician indicating that the seizures are now cxausing permanant brain damage. my speech has changed, when people talk to me, often it gets lost in my brain and i hear it in a totally different language. so, i just simply nod and agree. i figure that i have a 50/50 shot of getting it right. as for what work i used to do, i was an on air radio personality, and with having slurred speech all the time now, that is a no go. definate no go. that is why the radio station had to let me go. they thought i was doing drugs, but that was before we knew that i was having seizures that affected me that bad. the worst seizure i had, the life changing one, left me walking arpund for 3 days, convinced that the world had ended, that jesus had talked to me, and that we were all in the afterlife and dead. i was trying to convice other people of it as well. that isd how bad these things are.

Excuse me Finz! The post asked if anyone had experience with an OTR. I gave my experience, there is no need to start another thread simply by answering someones question. *admin edit* It isn't like I carried on a 4 page story about myself. I was giving an example to the person who started this thread. And as far as RFC's go. They are pretty much formatted all the same way. They all state severe limitations. I have the use of only 1 arm and no legs.... So yes, I can never work again. All 3 of my RFC's were filled out 100 percent favorably along with 2 detailed narratives. With 14 years of treating medical records as well as MRI's and 2 completed RFC reports from 2 different physical therapy offices.

The problem is I have been working and paying into the system since I was 14 years old. I was making 80,000.00 a year when I became disabled. They want and need me back in the work world to help pay into this system that only seems to work for fakers and drug addicts. A neighbor of mine was approved after 4 months for simply a "bad back" he is a junkie! His back allows him to wash his car and mow the lawn, build a porch on his house but me who have 2 small kids and can't even push them around the corner for ice cream because I only have 1 working arm is denied.

*admin edit*

"mind your business"
"Excuse me ?"

I prefer not to be spoken to in that way. I'd appreciate it if you would not do that again.



I'm sorry that I seem to have offended you and for thinking that you were looking for input about your situation. I misunderstood your inclusion of facts about your case, thinking you were looking for comments on your case and was just trying to help you get that. I apologize for suggesting that if you wanted advice on your own case that you start a your own thread to keep the discussion on topic in each thread. I made a misassumption. I'm sorry.


I also referred to your comment about your RFC's. When I see posts that contain possibly misleading info, which may be because the poster misunderstands the subject matter or may just be because the poster didn't explain the situation fully, I comment on it......not to insult the person if they were just too brief and didn't realize how others could be misled. If the poster really doesn't know or understand a point, I want to help them understand it better. I also want to help all of the forum members who read those comments now and in the future who could be misled by that info. I think it's important to clarify that type of thing, so as not to lead others astray. I want newbies to the SSDI/SSI process to understand that statements like "This all with 3 RFC's and an additional form filled out from doctors stating that I can never work again" and "I have the use of only 1 arm and no legs (SSDI/SSI can see from your application that you have legs and you should be having double knee replacements, which means that the functioning of both legs IS expected to improve).... So yes, I can never work again" are NOT proof of disability.

Please understand that I am not suggesting that you are not truly disabled or that your docs and PT's did not document the proof of your disability correctly. I am simply pointing out that what you have said in your posts in this thread regarding what's on your RFC's, does not prove disability.

I've read so many posts here from people who don't realize that documentation from a doc simply stating "can not work" is not proof of total disability to the SSA.....or they list all of their diagnoses to "prove" their disability, not realizing that it's NOT about the diagnosis or diagnoses, it's about how the symptoms that came with the diagnoses affect them and limit their ability to sit, stand, walk, and mentally process things. You may understand all of that. The comments in this thread could reinforce the misunderstanding of the process that so many people have and I want to prevent that from happening.

Oddly enough, some of this does relate to a point that I want to make for nic......so it's back to the regularly scheduled programming now......

This info sounds good for your SSDI case, not for your life

Much like micnef's issue with SSDI/SSI expecting there to be some improvement in functional ability after bilateral TKR's, usually docs can find the right medications and doses to manage seizures from seizure disorders or epilepsy, at least so that they wouldn't be as frequently as every other day (that REALLY stinks, sorry, nic). BD, depression, and anxiety can also usually be controlled with the right meds and therapy. It's not unreasonable for the SSA to think that while you would always have those diagnoses, they SHOULD be able to be managed. While the combo was disabling for a time, the conditions would be EXPECTED to IMPROVE. The SSA isn't going to approve anyone unless they have proven disability and that the condition is EXPECTED to LAST at least another 12 months. Knowing all of that, your initial denial doesn't sound unreasonable. Now, a year later, your docs have more information about your health. All the seizure medication and dosage changes still haven't effectively managed the frequency of you seizures. With over a year of failure to manage the seizures behind you, there is much less reason to expect improvement in your seizure frequency anytime soon. With such ongoing stress on your body and mind from the seizures, issues with BD, depression, and anxiety are more likely to exacerbate. Then you start to get into the brain damage from the seizures....Ugh !

You are still dependent on your docs to have adequately documented how your symptoms make it impossible for you to tolerate the sitting/standing/walking/or mental ability to do SGA, but something MAJOR has changed for you since you first applied for SSDI and got rejected.....you have NOT improved. As much as that stinks for your life , it SHOULD help you a lot with the SSDI approval process . My fingers will be crossed for you !

Just a reminder, that it's not just proving that you can't work as a radio personality anymore, it's proving that you can't do ANY SGA. Your story just sounded mortifying to me.....I think it's pretty traumatizing to all of us when our employment is officially terminated because of our disabilities, but to have people think you're a slacker because you are a druggie has to be particularly difficult.

Hang in there, nic. Just a month to go !

Thank you, finz. I am still a wreck of corse, my every waking moment is almost consumed by this whole ordeal. So much stress. Soooo much stress.