I want to thank everyone for all of their help on this group... I just had my "awards letter" read to me (it goes in the mail tomorrow) and I will start receiving benefits on January 16th, 2008... This will be after my 5 months waiting period with payment in the next month... I filed on June 4, 2007...

I think what really helped me was when I found out that sending me for a mental evaluation meant that I was not qualifying with the CIDP... I then researched to find what kind of information was needed and came across the functional assessments... While I was waiting for the CE exam, I located the forms at the website for a law firm (my computer has crashed since then, so I don't know the URL...) and wrote to them explaining what I wanted them for.. They emailed me back sending me the most recent edition of the form... I took one to my primary care physician and one to my neurologist in late July and early August...

Then I waited,...and waited,....and waited... You know the drill... And finally got word today, "for sure", after some inquiries last week, that I have been approved... What a relief...

Thanks again for everyone's help...

Aimee

Congratulations. It does make things alittle easier to deal with (for a little while anyway). Keep on Truckin'.

Im glad that you were approved so quickly, at least you dont have that hanging over your head. I have PN also. It was good that you took the bull by the horns and found out what you needed. When you say you found out what was needed for the functional assessments are you talking about for the cidp or mental evaluation ce or both?

Thanks Marse and Joe...

Joe, what I meant by finding out "what was needed for the functional assessments" I meant that rather than have my doctor write a letter and mention the things I was really having trouble with (standing, finger sensitivity, muscle spasms, balance, fatigue, etc.) he could use the form that I gave him and actually address each issue (the ones DDS really wanted to know about)... This is much better than the person at DDS or their doctors there "guessing" at what I could do based on just the diagnosis and test data that my doctor sent in... The things they "want" to know are really things that the normal doctor would not think to mention (how much you can lift, if you can bend, carry things, etc.)... There must be 30 or 35 of these functional activities listed on the forms...

I found the forms at the following site...

Look for "RFC Forms" in the menu list on the left side of the page... Click
on it and then on the right of the next page you choose whether you want the "physical" or "mental" RFC form... I like these because they seem to be SSA forms (printed by OMB - Office of Management and Budget for SSA)...

I only used the physical forms because I had not seen the person who prescribed the depression med. for me in about a year and a half... My PCP had taken over prescribing it... Also, they had me go to a local doctor hired by SSA to do a mental evaluation and he turned in his own report...

Hope this helps... Let me know if I can supply any more information...

Thanks again for the congratulations...
Aimee

thanks for the information and the link