So while in Socal I got another kick in the teeth

[southernlady]

Actually for those over 50, it's not any job but a job equivalent to what you were previously trained at. Example, dh could do many menial type jobs but as a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters and 15 years in the Nuclear power industry, he was incapable of handling the details required to work in the Mechanical Engineering field. He was 49 when medically retired and 51 when he went in front of the judge.

I was not allowed into the hearing (unless needed as a witness), he did tell me there was an occupational specialist hired by the SSA to state whether there were any equivalent careers he could be trained in and she told the judge there wasn't.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Thanks ladies. Today was a tough one because I had horrible diarrhea from around 8pm Monday until about 6pm tonight. I thought I was going to have get to the ER for fluids because I was very weak and dizzy but I got another bottle of water down, some Imodium and a nap for an hour and it really helped.

I know I need to get going on SSDI app but I have been so freaking tired and scattered brained. I will have to document and I am not sure how far back because I got 6 months of unemployment after being laid off so I don't know if I would have to pay that back if I try to go back to January of this year when I got UE until end of April. Hopefully tomorrow I have the energy to get information from my PCP office, Dr K and GI.

Thanks for the encouragement and prodding.

 

[KathrynK]

I didn't have to pay back unemployment. My SSDI waiting period began when I became disabled (the date of my non-bariatric surgery in 2014, with permanent complications). I was paid unemployment for 6 months after my final paycheck (after layoff severance when the company folded), and I applied for work that I thought I could do, but wasn't successful. I applied for SSDI the week my unemployment ran out. I don't know what happens if you overlap unemployment with your SSDI application, or if you don't have a calendar record of job applications and interviews during unemployment. Maybe you should get a lawyer involved to help you if it seems too much right now. Rest and recovery are more important right now.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Thanks Kathryn. My biggest hurdle is getting the medical notes to identify an actual cause of the disability. I have lots of issues like impaired cognative ability, chronic fatigue, chronic anemia, chronic malabsorption and nutritional deficit, colon issues, hernias, vitamin deficiency, passing out, hypothryoidism, lack of focus and so on.. I just don't know that one alone in itself is justification. The anemia and nutritional issues, hernia repairs,colon surgery are really the only things definitively diagnosed by a physician and I would assume they would say it is temporary. Anyway I have to get on this and get it done. I may have to seek an attorney's help because I am definitely too tired, weak and lacking focus to gather all the information.

 

[hilary1617]

Scott, I'm not even close to playing a doctor on tv, but everytime you mention your cluster of symptoms, many are eerily familiar from fellow neuroendocrine tumor and Cushing's disease patient communities to which I and my son, respectively, belong. Do me a crazy favor and read up on neuroendocrine tumors / carcinoid syndroem and also Cushing's syndrome and see if anything strikes a chord with you.... Feel better soon!

 

[DSRIGGS]

Scott, I'm not even close to playing a doctor on tv, but everytime you mention your cluster of symptoms, many are eerily familiar from fellow neuroendocrine tumor and Cushing's disease patient communities to which I and my son, respectively, belong. Do me a crazy favor and read up on neuroendocrine tumors / carcinoid syndroem and also Cushing's syndrome and see if anything strikes a chord with you.... Feel better soon!

Thanks Hil. I just saw this and appreciate the suggestion. I will get to googling now.

 

[southernlady]

Thanks Hil. I just saw this and appreciate the suggestion. I will get to googling now.

Watch out with Dr. Google! You can go from healthy to dead in three clicks!

 

[DianaCox]

Passing out frequently and with no warning is, I think, enough by itself to justify disability. You can't drive, much less work, if that is happening.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Watch out with Dr. Google! You can go from healthy to dead in three clicks!

Tru Dat!

 

[DSRIGGS]

Passing out frequently and with no warning is, I think, enough by itself to justify disability. You can't drive, much less work, if that is happening.

I would think so too. My only concern is that nobody has diagnosed anything. I get the feeling that my PCP thinks I am making it up. He said to me in an email response when I was asking him to do something as far as getting me a referral because I feel like shit all the time, lightheaded, weak fatigued, confused and passing out two to three times a day.....if you have all those symptoms it sounds like you are ready to die...or something along those lines. I am the classic zebra....doesn't fit neatly in a predetermined diagnosis box so of course it has to be in my head, right? We saw this same thing with Cameron before our PCP actually diagnosed chemo brain and put him on an ADHD med to help his concentration...then with his 24/7 nausea, light head and feeling like garbage a GI finally did a 4 hour gastric emptying study rather than the normal one hour test. The one hour appeared to be a little slow but on track. The four hour showed he only emptied 20% after four hours. So in both cases somebody eventually found a diagnosis and fixed the root cause or controlled symptoms. That is why I am going to camp at Mayo until they test the living shit out of me. I am too damn young to live the rest of my days this way, which will be numbered if I don't get fixed relatively soon.

I will get going on the processing after then holiday as I know it is too late now.

Thanks!

 

[Razbry]

I'm glad you are going to mayo. It's a great place to get to the root of the problem. Keep us informed Scott. We care.

 

[aaa]

I like Mayo, too.

 

[DSRIGGS]

I'm glad you are going to mayo. It's a great place to get to the root of the problem. Keep us informed Scott. We care.

Thanks Sweetheart. I will end up okay, eventually. Mayo is second to none with their diagnostic ability and efficiency, ONCE IN THE SYSTEM. It is getting in that is the hard part.

 

[Jbandmmomma]

you are a lesson in perseverance. we all wish you didn't have to be, though.

 

[DSRIGGS]

you are a lesson in perseverance. we all wish you didn't have to be, though.

Thanks Hon, but I am a wimp compared to you. You battled that fissure and hernia for so long.