And what of his comment that 'many people with PN work'. What has been your experience with that? The few PN people I know, are all on disability. Thanks.

OH my . . . back to the find a 'good neurologist' game . . . I hope instead, over time, he changes his mind. I know, the chance of that are about as likely as me beating Michael Jordan in a game of one on one basketball. Like echo and I have pointed out -- work 15 minutes, rest 30 until bed . . . .his treatment plan . . . how can I hold down a job with a treatment plan such as his current one? My thoughts are . . . he gets me good enough to work full time . . . maybe that takes a whole year . . . then I get another year to do PT and what not to make sure everything is really ready to get back into the 'system'. I know . . . dreamer boy . . . I don't see shrinks for the fun of it. :confused:


Those are 3rd party function reports typically sent to close family and/or friends. You need to keep in mind his opinion as a doc will not be of any help unless he's a treating source.
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there are many people with mild pn who do work and may have very few symptoms and as little as one area of the body affected. once you get to the moderate level, there are many more people not working and severe, it would be very difficult to hold down the most sedentary job. what is the cause of your PN, do you know? Depending on the cause and the treatment, PN may not progress, may progress slowly or may progress rapidly. there is no way of knowing. however after having it now 14 years, the success stories are few and far between. rest may lessen you pain but it wont cure you. the types of PN that may stay the same or improve include vitamin deficiencies, from chemo therapy, diabetes (sometimes), or nerve impingement. if you have had it more than two years the chances of you getting better are very very slim.

Devil's Advocate again
 

Here I go again with the devil's advocate..... OK, if you have had the mental conditions for 8 years and were working during that time, then those conditions do not prevent you from being able to work.

From what I have read in your posts, it is actually the PAIN of SFN that has put you over the top and exacerbated the other conditions. So you are still stuck with all the issues that come with documenting the condition that has caused your pain and then exacerbated your other conditions.

If all I had was some paperwork in front of me as an employee of SSDI that documented your mental conditions during a time period while you were working full time and now pain without a doctor treating you for the condition that causes you the pain substantiating the reasonableness of it, I would not be inclined to approve you at the initial stage.

They may not deny you, but instead send you to their physicians for evaluation. Just a thought.

Medical records
 

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Do you have a copy of the medical records of the neuro that talks out of both sides of his mouth? What did he WRITE in your chart? What he says to you does not matter if it is not written in your records. If he has charted that he feels you are not in pain, SS has a copy of that if you listed him as a treating physician. You and your attorney will need to address that.

The last 8 years of treatment won't be a real factor. Why? Because you were able to work until 6 months ago. SS will look at med records going back 1 year from your AOD for the PN and 2 years for the BP disorder. If you're claiming your mental health is severe enough to prevent you from working, SS will expect you to be seeing a mental health professional frequently--I would say once a week is the norm.

BTW, very few pain mgmt docs are willing to prescribe narcotics anymore. Your neurologist might be providing adequate pain management, but if you're saying you are frequently hitting an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale, that doesn't seem adequate.

You might also consider seeing a pain psychologist.

The pain for the SFN is being treated with GabaP. Prior to that it was compression stockings, prescription creams, custom-made orthotics, etc. etc. Cause it unknown and it has been with me for over two years so according to echos . . . the chances of me getting better are very small . . .

Echoes, and Mz. Migraine help out as often as I do and are as knowledgeable. Janke was in a league of her own, no disrespect to anyone. I'm impressed with how much you've picked up, btw!

I sure did not mean to slight Echoes and Mz. Migraine. Earlier in the thread, Lit Love was the only one posting responses.

Thanks to you, too, Echoes.

Speaking of Mz. Migraine, is she around? Hello to you, if you read this post.

And Hi to you, too, Echoes.

I didn't get the impression that you were slighting anyone at all, I just wanted to spread the love was all.

And of course I overlooked the Admins, who are the most generous with their time... Whoops!

Mz. Migraine is hopefully on vacation or doing something fun....

Sorry to get off track, you were posting about me the way I used to post about Janke and it reminded me how much I miss her presence here.