Disability

Yeah I have heard many times on this board how hard getting disability is to get. My sister just got disability because she has osteoarthritis in her knee. No Crohns!! I have osteoarthritis all over the place, Crohns Disease for over 30 years, Fibromyalgia and Inflammatory Arthritis. I am too scared to even try, because of how many have been turned down. What gets me is this, I love my sister very much, but if she lost weight I am sure her knee would get better. She is obese. Actually my whole family is, except me, thanks to Crohns. Isn't that sad, that someone who has knee problems because of her weight can get disability, but us with an incurable disease have to be practically be dead to get it. In case you havent noticed, yes I am bitter.

One tip I can give you is get a lawyer to help you and make sure you have your doctors on board with you. Good luck!

I am on disability. I have private coverage from my former employer and when they closed the rehab file and reclassified me as permanently disabled, they made me apply for disability under our national pension plan. I didn't think I would qualify either because there is a different standard. For my private disability insurance, I qualify because I was in a high level position and could demonstrate that I can't reasonably earn 66 per cent of what I had been making because I can no longer manage a 40 hour work week. But for national public disability the standard is lower.

I don't know what my physicians wrote in support of the application, but it took less than three months from the time I applied until I heard from the medical adjudicator that she had approved the claim. So I get the basic national public disability pension and my private insurer tops it up from there.

I am really lucky. I realize now, after being retired for 10 months, just how disastrous my career had become in terms of my health. I feel better now than I have in 20 years. Even though I am still sick, now that I'm not pushing myself every day I recover much more quickly from the bad days and they don't stretch into weeks of misery.

It was hard to accept disability. I didn't want it and felt at the time the decision was made that I had been abandoned by my employer and my disability insurer, but it really has been for the best. I think throughout the disability process -- I went on short term disability in January 2005, began a graduated return to work program in october 2005 but was never able to return full time. In December 2006 my insurer decided I qualifed for permanent disability and shut the rehab file. That was when I was asked to apply for the public pension.

My brother is a lawyer. He has been amazed by the ease with which I obtained disability. He was preparing me for a fight, but no lawyers were involved. I filled out the forms and my physicians filled out their forms. That was it.

I think the secret, though, is that throughout the process I demonstrated an earnest desire to return to work. I complied with every directive issued by the insurer. I kept good notes about what was going on and I kept my physicians fully informed about the difficulties I was having in returning to work. From the beginning, I also documented everything. If I got a phone call from the case manager or the rehab consultant I would follow up with a letter pointing out my understanding of what had been said.

Attitude is going to have a huge part to play in how your claim in handled. Your disability claim will be based on the medical evidence so it is critical that your physicians, especially your primary care physician, understand your situation and support your claim.

I am on disability, and have been on for about 5 years, It was a long battle, You must have you Doctor on your side, and document document document every thing. One very simple thing you must put on every application is that you are disabled, never put you work, you must be to the point you can no longer hold a job. After I was finially accepted, the Board of Doctors that review claims gave me back pay, the Max is 25,000 which I received. After you are accepted you will be again check in about a year, 2 at max. Keep good records during this time, they will be important at the review. At this time you may be put on permanent disability. And yes get a good Attorney....