Need good thoughts/prayers, etc...

Hi all,

I do not post here very much, but I do read the topics everyday. I originally had Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in 2004 and went through chemo and a bone marrow transplant. I have several complications left over from the bone marrow transplant and never made it to go back to work. I used to work as a restaurant manager, owned my own candle business, and also worked in a distribution center. All of those are very active jobs and I would never had been able to go back to any of the fields that I had experience in. I would have needed to be retrained to do a sedentary type of job. Due to chronic pain I cannot sit/stand/walk for extended periods of time. I need frequent rest breaks. My pain management doctor told me that I am disabled and not to worry about social security disability.

They originally awarded my disability on the first go around because AML is considered a terminal and very fast moving cancer. When I came back up for review after my bone marrow transplant, they denied my claim. Of course I appealed and continued my benefits. I also went for my appeal and had a face to face interview in my local social security office. This person continued to deny my claim. SO - I once again filed an appeal and to continue my benefits.

I am now at the Judge Advocate Hearing level of my appeal and I have secured an attorney. Today I just got the information in the mail for the new hearing. It is scheduled for May 9th and will be done via video conference because I am in Ohio and the ODAR's office is in California. My attorney is on vacation until April 25th - Monday. I do not know exactly why, but I am a nervous wreck over this hearing. We have been fighting for my benefits since they turned down my first review - that was in 2007. It has taken me 4 years to get this far.

Please, anyone that prays - please do so. Even good thoughts for my sanity between now and the hearing would be great! I would be most appreciative!!

Thank you for reading my ramblings!
Trudy

                Wow Trudy I can't believe what they are putting you thru with all that you

                are suffering. This is just so wrong.

                 You definitely have my prayers. So sorry for all your heartache. Just

                      remember to do one day at a time so you don't become overwhelmed.

                Good luck and let us know your outcome.

                     Suzane 

hello trudy, once again we are asked to convince the officials of our disabilities.  i think i find this almost as bad as being a cp patient. over and over we are accused of being anything from drug addicts to just lazy people wanting to live just to receive this oh so small pittence of monies.  its mind boggling, i will surely pray for you, i wish you had retained a lawyer several years ago, but as i always tell myself you cant go back. anyway since you have a lawyer im am very confident you will get what you so deserve.  after 2 years of trying on my own, i retained a lawyer, i am not sure if the same rules apply in ohio, but here in md., and dc the one thing you can be assured of is if a lawyer takes your case, you will win. these lawyers work only on disability cases, and are only paid if they win the case. once the lawyer looked over my files (all 500 or so pages) he took my case and in less than 3 months after starting i was receiving checks once a month and had already been signed up for medicare.  he was and i am sure still is a wonderful lawyer.  he had no personality at all but he was not going to be a lifelong friend, he did his job and did it well. i will send all prayers i can your way, even in getting this small amount of money it remains only one journey in a long line of journeys. i dont wish any ill will on anyone, but sometimes wish the people who sit in judgement of our financial lives walked in our shoes one day, its not pretty. along with not being able to work outside the home, the amount of money from ssi is not enough to live on, so we lose again and again. please do not forget that you paid into social security all the years you worked outside the house, its not charity.

Trudy-Saying a prayer for you you get this SSDI. Sara

Hey!...that brings a smile to our faces!

Congrats! Excellant!

SE

   

          Yiiiiippppppeeeeeee! 

suzane