HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Disability???

Support Forums
>
Ostomies
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/9/2009 7:40 AM (GMT 0)
Has anyone with a colectomy ended up on disability? I know timing is everything, but I can't get my "timing" to work while I'm on the way to work, or there
Posted 1/9/2009 1:09 PM (GMT 0)
I think you'll probably find that most people are more 'abled' than they were pre ostomy surgery. However, that's 'most' people.

With your colectomy, do you have a bag? If so, then if you wear a drainable bag, you should be able to make it to work then empty once you're there. If your bag gets too full if you're driving really far, then you can empty into a plastic bag/container, etc on the way if necessary.

If not, then that's an entirely different story. Most adults who have a colectomy (without a bag) have incontinence issues (rather than kids who's bowels seem to adapt easier). If this is the issue, I would say you might have a case. However, from talking with friends in the USA (I'm presuming you're from there), disability is hard work and requires a lawyer to help you out.

Good luck either way.
Posted 1/11/2009 12:20 AM (GMT 0)
I put in for disability and waited 4 months and got denied. I am appealing. Hard toi "prove" your case unless you can get one or two doctors up front to give you letters and state why. I n=may decide to get a lawyer but they will take 25-50%.I am living off my savings and have not worked for 6 months. I want to work but still too sick. I will talk to the docs next week and see. I hate asking them but here I go. I hate to complain or tell them how bad it is.
Posted 1/18/2009 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
Lesa JT,
I can work in that my mind is capable of thinking it through and do itl But I am so physically exhausted all the time that there is not much leftover for things like family, church, styahing up past 5 pm. So weird since I usually bounce right back wtih anything going on. This has wiped me out. Made it through 2 weeks back at work, but so needed naps I couldn't take.

Going to talk with doc regarding cummulative chornic illnesses that cause disability, but that whole COBRA thing is an issue. I do qualify for SSI disability, but Medicaid/Medicare won't kick in for 24 months, and the COBRA only allows 18 months ... and you have to have continuous coverage,

But we can bail out silly car manufacturers and poorly run financial insitutionsl Just not helath care.
Posted 1/18/2009 1:18 PM (GMT 0)
When I had UC.. it was horrid. I was working, but going to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. and having diarrhea and vomiting constantly. I had many days off work. It was truly a disability....

Having the ileostomy and gone though the recovery afterwards, one of the first things I thought of while recovering from my ileostomy was "can I get disabiltiy payments because of this"...

The answer I received was "can you work in your chosen profession?".. And the anser is.. yes I can.... I work in an office, and I do meet customers.. I attend meetings and I travel.. One of the things I'm conscious of is how many days I've had the bag on and when it needs to be changed. I'll change it the morning before I go on an airplane, and normally the bag lasts 4 days on me before I know I need to change it. I wear the single piece bag that is drainable. and experience has taught me that the 5th day the thing will start to leak..

When I first started working again. it wasn't easy. Like many things, managing this bag has taken some time and you learn by your mistakes. I kept a 2d pair of clothes in my office along with towels and tape and everything else..... I still recall being in a meeting with some clients and I got a whiff of "bag".. It was an exceptionally hot day in July and the adhesive had failed on day three... OK these things happen and you just have to deal with it..

But unless you can show an inability to do work.. The chances of you receiving disability payments are quite small.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply