Disability Review?

Hey everyone -

I've been on disability for a while now...I think I was officially declared disabled in November of 2013, but considered disabled since May 2011, and then benefits started in December 2013...

My payment (direct deposit) is late at the moment, and they do a review every 3 years, or "around" every 3 years which makes me nervous...so I'm wondering if that's coming up for me now which is really freaking me out. Supposedly around 95% of cases get continued, but I'm nervous because I've been using almost entirely alternative medicine for all of my Lyme stuff and everything else...which might look to the government doctors reviewing me like I'm not cooperating with treatment...not sure if it works for or against me that there's really no cure all for chronic lyme.

When I got approved for disability I was working with a lawyer and at that point I was seeing an MD and treating with antibiotics - had been working with her for well over a year and she wrote a really great narrative report. I know Lyme disease is getting a lot more exposure these days, but still, I'm not sure if they'll send me for review, and have no traditional evidence of Lyme disease and have it be a problem...

Just wondering if anyone's been in this spot before and has any advice?

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Agree with tickbite -
You'll need to continue proving you cannot work any job. The main source for this "proof" is from medical records, so you'll need to continue seeing your LLMD (or start seeing her again, in your case) and her notes in your records need to reflect the ongoing conditions that keep you from working any job.

I have been working with a SSDI lawyer and I've been waiting for my initial hearing (in CA it generally takes 18 months to get past all the initial and subsequent denials before getting a determination from the court - unbelievable). I didn't learn this from the attorney but from others very experienced in this process:

The most definitive way to qualify is to demonstrate mental/psychological impairment and the easiest (and required) way to prove this is medical records. There is a group of automatically qualifying conditions that are kind of obvious (like alzheimers or a condition that would impair mental capacity or cognition) and a few physical conditions (being wheel-chair bound is not one of them) but they all rely on medical records.

Hope this helps! Good luck -

-p