Had a Myelogram Test/Update

Hey Mister! (I just love saying that!!)

That procedure sounds a little like the Discogram I had prior to my Fusion Surgery. I was wondering if they sedated you for it? I was during mine, so it was not bad, but I sure do remember moaning when pressure was applied.

Good luck, and will they have results back soon for you?

Take care!

SE

Hey Mister,

Perhaps I read incorrectly, but are you saying that you have to pay for the psych eval for SSD? If so....DON'T...they will send you for one if they feel you need it and it is paid for completely by them. They also pay you mileage to go (if you send in the paperwork). I had one done and so did a friend of mine who was applying at the same time. They were done at different offices and wow were they different, but my personal psych read the one that my SSD psych evaluator sent to him outloud to me and it was right on the money! They still denied me until I went for the hearing and they approved her on the first attempt.

She has way less physical and psych issues, but she is 13 years older than I, too.

Anyway, I wish you luck on your application. I know we have talked about it before, but my memory is horrible, so I do want to recommend a good lawyer who specializes in just SSD claims. They won't take your case unless they think they can win and they normally do!

All my best!

Ohhhh...now I understand. This is very common. My friend never expected to get hers so quickly and didn't hire an attorney (strangely her step-daughter is an attorney, but not in that field). She knew from her son's experience that an attorney would not take the case until there had been denials first. They get paid from back-pay and won't get too much if they start and you get it immediately. Mine took the case after my two denials. The hearing was basically all she did, but I was happy to pay her for that because she was able to explain to the judge what looked like a lie on my part. It was because I was on leave with pay, then short term disability, then leave, then short term, then both. That sounds insane, but I was under the Family Leave act and because it ended, I was in jeopardy of loosing my job. I was actually placed on contingency leave (which prevented me filing for my medical retirement) without notice. Thank God I had retained a lot of leave and could go back into pay status, which ment I could not be on contingency leave. It's complicated and made it look on paper that I was actually working because I was drawing a paycheck for leave hours off and on for a long time. I had decided short term disability would give me about 5-6 months to recuperate while preserving my leave....it turns out that I just didn't get well and had to retire.

It mention this because these things would have never popped into my mind when thinking about applying for SSD. I did get my medical retirement (because I had worked almost 20 years for the state) and had paid in all of that time. The state determines if you can work doing the same job or one of equal salary, benefits, and promotional opportunities and if not, then you are granted medical retirment (assuming you have dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's). After that, I was able to use the paperwork and documentation to help complete my SSD application and give data to the attorney. I didn't even have a person at the hearing to decide what type of job I might be able to do, since I had obviously already presented this information to the state. The judge was great!

They did surprise me by asking me how many times I had to stop (and I wasn't driving) on the way to the hearing. It shocked me because I wasn't prepared for that. I had stopped three times. He asked me to explain why I felt I was disabled...which was emotional for me and after a few minutes, he stopped me as it was graphic information. I was granted almost immediately after that.

I was also extremely pleased to find that my child (under 18) was automatically entitled to SSD benefits on my disability. It has been a Godsend for her education. They send out a document about a year in to ask you to certify how much of the money (for the child) you saved and how much you spent on taking care of the child. I claimed (in truth) that I had spent all of it taking care of her (especially because it pays her tuition, uniforms, food for school, and transportation for school). It also helps with the cost of caring for a child on a regular basis. This will end at 18, but it's a blessing until then!

Wow, RetiredMom, I'm so glad you eventually got the your retirement and benefits. Sounds like you've been through a lot. But yeah, I guess I will see what happens with my application. If I get denied, I'm going to call the law firm back ASAP. I'm fine with paying for it, because if I am still disabled and will be for a long time...I NEED these benefits. It's worth the price.

straydog said...
Patrick, I am not sure what you were told when released from the hospital, but the at least 24 hours or so after a mylo the patient should rest in bed or in a recliner and drink lots and lots of fluid to flush the dye from your system. The dye they use now is water soluable instead of oil base like in the old days. So, drink, drink & drink some more liquids, lol.

The mylo is not like the discogram that can be very painful, grown men have been known to scream from the pain when having one. They inject each disc when doing a discogram, some drs will not do discograms because of potential risks involved. The purpose of injecting the disc is they are trying to recreate the pain in the disc that is causing the problems. The mylo is like a road map of your spine, they can actually see nerve sheaths fill when doing a mylo. It is a very definitive test.

You have a pretty busy schedule from the sound of things, take care of yourself & keep us posted....Susie

Thanks for the tips! They did tell me to drink lots of fluids and gave me some good discharge instructions. They actually told me that caffeine helps, so to drink lots of it to keep from getting 'spinal' headaches.

That discogram thing sound horrific. I can see why they would shy away from that. I mean, if you can tell that a disc is problematic without that test--then I don't think anyone would ever be ok with having something like that done. In my case, it isn't just my discs causes issues, so I don't think that a discogram would have been helpful anyhow. I actually never heard of either of these tests before, though. But yeah, hopefully they get a good 'look' from the mylo and can tell me what it showed them.

Thanks, stray.

So far, so good on the headache front. I keep knocking back cans of Pepsi Max because I don't drink coffee or tea. lol!

They described that blood patch thing to me too, I don't really get why or what a spinal headache is or why blood 'cures' it. Either way, thanks for the advice. I hate headaches anyhow.

That sounded horribly painful... sorry