Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

social security disability appeal, mostly

2024-04-12T20:53:14Z

I got several letters from the SS Disability office last weekend, about setting up a hearing on my appeal. This is the stage at which we get to submit more evidence for my claim.

I called my neurologist's office yesterday, in part to ask whether he can help with this, after a single visit. He called this morning and said (reasonably) that the cognitive and neurological stuff is hard to prove, and recommended a neuropsych evaluation. He offered to have his staff make an appointment for that, which I asked him to do.

They called this afternoon to offer me an appointment -- for January 7, that being the first available. I suspect that will be too late to be useful for this hearing, but I made the appointment, and confirmed that I wanted to be on the waiting list for any cancellations.

Also today my eye doctor's office called, to reschedule my annual exam from July to October. I asked to be on a waitlist there as well.

I need to call the lawyer for the disability appeal, but am not sure I can deal with it today. If not, I will call tomorrow afternoon, expecting to leave a message and ask him to call me back. I didn't call him yesterday because I wanted to talk to the neurologist first.

[Noting here to ask lawyer whether we should get in touch with Dr. AbdelRazek.]

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Disability benefits denial

2024-03-17T17:47:08Z

The Social Security disability benefits people have turned me down, and we are filing another appeal, this time asking for a hearing (there is a prescribed sequence of appeals). Because the lawyer got the explanation before I did, we filed the appeal asking for a hearing before I saw their explanation.

According to the letter they sent me, they turned me down because I can still walk, sit, and stand and thus can do light work, such as editing. This means I am going to have to sit down, probably with my lawyer, and with cattitude and adrian_turtle and maybe other people, and figure out how to explain that the problem isn't just, or primarily, my orthopedic issues. It's the neurological problems, and that even with the brain meds [1], I have lost some of of my ability to see patterns, and to identify and solve problems, and those are essential to the work I was doing and know how to do.

I am not looking forward to this: not only is it depressing, I usually try to conceal those problems, and find workarounds in day-to-day life, like taking a familiar route rather than finding a new and better one.

At least the explanation makes enough sense that there's something to refute.

[1] The relevant medication here is the Ritalin, which I have spent a lot of time chasing down in the last few months; the lsat I heard, we'll be lucky if they fix the current world-wide shortage of it and other drugs used for ADHD is fixed this year. I don't know whether we will want to tell them that my workarounds such as they are require a reliable supply of medication, that nobody has a reliable supply of right now.

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social security

2023-07-14T15:22:33Z

It has been more than a month since I got email saying that my application for disability benefits had been rejected, and an explanation would be coming in the mail*. I have not received an explanation, or any other mail from them. I have now left two phone messages with the person at their office who was assigned to my case, asking how I can appeal the rejection without having received that paperwork.

So far, my contact hasn't answered. There's a 60-day window for appealing the decision. I'm not sure of the right thing to do here. Things that have occurred to me: (a) look for a lawyer to help; (b) file an appeal online to avoid missing the deadline, even though the first page of that process implies that I should have answers to what they have; (c) ask my congresswoman's office for help.

Does anyone know a Massachusetts lawyer or organization that helps with this, or have other suggestions?

*What I actually got was an email saying "we have made a decision, log in to see it" and that got me the bare-bones answer.

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disability application denied

2023-06-07T14:55:30Z

Unsurprising but still disappointing, the Social Security Administration has denied my disability claim.

For added annoyance, this information came in the form of an email saying "we have made a decision, log in to see it or wait for a letter in the mail." After some trouble logging in I was told to call to get the answer. I then spent about three minutes on the phone, most of it listening to a recording tell me how the process complied with the Paperwork Reduction Act, and that the whole thing would take about two minutes, and wouldn't I like to use their website instead.

So, what I know now is that someone made a medical decision to turn me down, and I will have sixty days to appeal the decision. That is a problem for next week, after I get the letter. *sigh*

It doesn't help that the air quality is unhealthy for sensitive people, which includes me. The alert has been extended from midnight last night until midnight tonight; I woke up coughing at five a.m.

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SSDI application

2023-02-03T18:18:24Z

I finished the "activities of daily living" questionnaire yesterday afternoon, and cattitude stayed up late last night to finish his questionnaire about me. adrian_turtle girded her loins, went out into the cold, and mailed them at the post office this morning.

I am still, or again, feeling stressed, but at least there's nothing I need to do about this for a while, so it doesn't matter if I'm a bit distracted for a day or three.

I did call the person at their office after lunch, and left a message telling her that we had mailed back all the forms either yesterday or this morning, because it might help and can't hurt.

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SSDI application

2023-02-01T19:31:47Z

I am very glad I kept calling the person whose name and number were on the letter about disability determination, which said "we have to hear from you by Feb. 4th," because when I got through she said my forms were already overdue. I said "I have a letter here dated Jan 25 that says you have to hear from me by the fourth," and then I explained about the forms having first gone to the wrong address. You'd think she'd be aware of what was being sent out with her name, or at least not have incorrect beliefs about it.

However, I told her that one set are going back this afternoon and that I may need a couple of days for the other; gave her my new psychiatrist's name and contact info; and found out where to send the forms back to, and also that yes I can attach additional pages with typed answers (I thought I could, but it didn't say).

Each questionnaire came with a large business reply envelope, the kind with an address window, and nothing telling me what should be showing in that window. The address the examiner gave me is on the top of the letter, in small print, so not something I could use in that window. I measured, wrote the address on a plain sheet of white paper, tried it in the envelope, and redid it half an inch up and a little to the right. Then I made multiple copies, for the other things we need to send them. I don't know if there was supposed to be a sheet of paper with that neatly printed, or if this is one more random way to unofficially disqualify applicants.

I finished the "work record" questionnaire this morning, and cattitude has taken it to the post office. I havealso drafted answers to most of the questions in the stress-inducing "tell us all about what you can no longer do" "function" questionnaire, but some bits are just "[come back to this"] or ["ask Adrian"]. And Cattitude has drafted his answers to the similar one they sent him, as a person I identified as able to talk about my disability.

[I had posted this and some other recent posts on this subject access-list-only, for no particular reason, and just unlocked them.]

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still working on the social security disability application

2023-02-01T00:37:11Z

I have completed the "work history" forms, and will mail that tomorrow. I'm partway through a first draft of the more complicated and emotionally strenuous one that asks what I can do, what I can't do anymore, and so on. They overlap, because this one asks about how my condition affects my ability to work.

First draft because while there are a few straightforward questions (who do you live with? do you drive?) there are a lot more like "do you prepare meals? how frequently? how long does it take" and "what do you do all day?"

Today's mail had a letter telling me that they'd sent the previous large envelopes, and asking me to call and let them know whether I want to add any medical providers (yes) and when am I going to return the forms? I left a message, asking the "disability examiner" to call me back. I hope to be able to tell her something like "I'm going to send this one back today, and hope to send the other tomorrow. My new psychiatrist is $name, at the same number as you had for my previous psychiatrist, and she has access to the previous doctor's charts."

Also, I had to cross out and re-write some things on the "work history" form because I'd put the numbers on the wrong lines. This despite doing a first draft on my computer, because that's not something I first-drafted. On the other hand, one of the things I'm telling them is that I make more mistakes than I used to...

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social security disability application

2023-01-30T00:30:14Z

I got a call a few days ago from someone at the Social Security "disability determination" office, following up on forms they'd sent me and not gotten back. They hadn't gotten the forms back because, even though I gave them a change of address last summer, they sent everything to our old address in Belmont. I told them that yes, I am still interested in pursuing this claim, please send the forms to my current address. This was all reasonable, but still not a cheerful conversation.

Two envelopes arrived in yesterday's mail. One of them asks me about my work history, which they also seem to have lost, in this case after I submitted it online.

The other envelope contained a multi-page form with lots of questions about what I can and cannot do. This is not going to be a cheerful process, and I have to send everything back by February 4th. I think we will take this to the post office and hand it over the counter, rather than risk someone breaking into a mailbox.

Also, everything has to be printed or typed using black or dark-blue ink. That effectively means it all has to be hand-written, because we no longer have a typewriter, and neither do many other private homes.

So far, I have answered the utterly straightforward factual questions on the first page, namely my social security number and daytime phone number. (They have both of those, too.) But doing that little bit means I have started on the process, which may make it easier to do more tomorrow.

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disability benefits application

2022-07-17T01:10:37Z

I just learned that "The Disability Determination Service (DDS) started a medical review of your application on July 16, 2022. We expect this review to take 7 months."

That counts as progress, albeit slow.

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I spoke to someone at the social security office

2022-04-06T19:47:16Z

It took a few calls, but I have now spoken to the woman whose name and number were on the letter I got last week.

It turns out that what I need to mail them is: nothing. The online application is complete, and after looking at my earnings report, she said the last few years of freelance work, everything since 2014, don't count as "substantial gainful activity," so she doesn't need the 2021 tax return to tell her that last year's freelance income isn't "substantial gainful activity" either.

I think the process here is: tomorrow morning she will write a "work report" based on what I told her, about having stopped looking for full-time work because I realized I couldn't handle a full-time job, and what the Social Security Administration already knows about my work history. That goes to the local disability determination office, which assigns it to an examiner. The examiner will contact my doctors for medical records, which will then be looked at by a doctor or doctors who work for them.

Somewhere in there, I will probably get a call from an examiner, or a letter asking me to call them. They may want me to be examined by a doctor who works for Social Security, but when I said "fine, if I can keep my N95 mask on" the woman said I could ask for telemedicine.

I asked how long this was likely to take, and while she doesn't know exactly -- among other things, this may depend on how efficient three or four different medical offices are -- if I haven't heard by the end of May, I should call back.

For my reference: My contact is ( Read more... )

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SSDI

2022-03-31T20:49:18Z

I'm applying for Social Security disability (SSDI)

I got a letter from the social security administration today, telling me that I needed to complete my disability application b April 27th. I hadn't realized that starting an online application also started some sort of clock. I'd paused, and saved my work, several times, including once to see whether it would behave better on Chrome than on Firefox.

The letter says "please go online and complete" two specific forms, which are the application and consent for my doctors to send them info. So I did that, adding a couple of sentences and the date of an upcoming medical appointment. Then I saved and/or printed almost every page of the application, just in case.

The next paragraph of their letter says "you must send us the original records," but I'm not entirely sure of what they're asking for. I think it means we need to do our 2021 income tax, so I can send them a copy. The letter gives a specific person (name and phone number/extension), so I called and left a message asking what if anything I need to send by that deadline.

I think that's all the application forms I need to complete and send in for the time being -- the other recent ones were the German naturalization application, apartment rental applications, and (minor) the application to have the company that makes the T cell test waive my fees.

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redbird @ 2017-07-31T16:32:00

2017-07-31T20:34:09Z

My friend mrissa wrote an excellent essay for the Disabled People Destroy SF kickstarter: Malfunctioning Space Stations.

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Link: On not giving up

2016-05-01T11:40:22Z

For Blogging against Disabilism Day, David Gillon has written about not 'Giving Up' and about non-disabled people's harmful prejudices about him using a wheelchair.

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Misc. comments 49

2011-06-30T01:51:16Z

More saved comments, this time from Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, and Tor.com: ( disability, bodies, discrimination, politics, differences of opinion, ways of reading, energy )

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Three random things make a post

2010-06-09T01:11:52Z

As part of setting up my system again, I went to get ~~AdBlockPlus~~ Flashblock for Firefox. There was a "donate $5" link, and I looked at it, and thought that yes, I like that add-on a lot, I'll throw the programmer $5. So, connected to Paypal, specifically their Malaysian instantiation, which told me it was US$5, and that the money was going to Philip Chee. I'd hit the "submit" button before I stopped to think "that name sounds familiar," and I spent a moment wondering if it was the same one. The next day's email included a thank-you note, asking if I was the redbird he knew from rassef. I said yes, and told him he can find me here these days. He said he's too busy for blogs not already in his reader, but that was a nice moment of contact.

On my way home yesterday, I squeezed into the elevator up from the subway platform with three strangers: one was using a cane, the other two were pushing strollers. There were two more women on the platform, one of them visibly pregnant, and room in the elevator for one; they gestured that they'd wait for it to come back. As the doors closed, one of the women with a stroller said something about "so young," sounding as though she thought the women were too young to need the elevator. I said, mildly, that you can't always tell, that I have a bad knee and maybe so does she. (And noted to myself that priority for the elevators is supposed to be disabled and elderly people, not strollers.) Maybe it will help. I don't carry a cane either, but my white hair seems to take me out of the "too young" box in the minds of people who think that young people aren't supposed to need (or admit needing?) any sort of accommodation.

I have bought a yoga mat, on the advice of the trainer I'm working with; it may make some of the stretches and exercises she's teaching me easier or more comfortable. It came with a free exercise DVD; I don't want the DVD, but they didn't have any without the DVD.

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Friday at Wiscon

2009-05-23T15:30:47Z

The panel on "Rethinking Disabling Metaphor," on the ways that casual use of terms like "lame" or "crazy" as all-purpose dismissals of people and ideas can both be painful to some people who hear them, and create or reinforce prejudices, was good. The moderators had to remind a few people of the focus of _this_ panel, that similar uses of, say, "that's gay," were beyond the scope of what they were trying to do in 75 minutes. But some good ideas were shared; one useful thing the moderators did was point out that you can't just tell people not to use idioms or metaphors, you need to provide and use different ones. So they collected a few from other categories: for example, that an idea is half-baked or doesn't hold water.

elisem summed a lot of this up as "before you insult someone, think of the collateral damage."

The panel I moderated, on Tyrannosaurs and F-14s, went pretty well, I think, despite one person in the front row who kept jumping in without waiting to be called, to the point that I cut him off in turn, saying "we've heard from you a lot, $name. Anyone else?" (I have already forgotten his name, not having noted it in time to save for "people I do not want to be on panels with.") One of my panelists noted afterward that the audience kept laughing, which was a good sign. We threw in lots of "I liked this even though it was bad," and Cabell suggested that one reason we were all coming up with movies and TV shows rather than books is that there are several people involved in creating those, and more ways that some parts of it can be good: the script stinks, but the cinematography is gorgeous or one of the actors really appeals to you. Someone in the audience added that a movie, for him, is a two-hour time investment, and a novel is eight or ten, so he's going to have higher standards before sticking with a novel. Also, stuff that you hit at the right time: for different people, Lost in Space, and Highlander. So does context: part of what Cabell had enjoyed about Highlander was watching it with her roommate annd mocking it together. That's less likely/common with written fiction.

After that, I went to the Haiku Earring party, let erik serve me herb tea, had some nice round brownies, and eventually picked out a pair of earrings that I figured I could write something from, though I didn't want to keep them. So:

Patchwork Magic

Magic holds the world
together, after children
tear summer's thread.

I'm not 100% happy with it, but will probably just let it sit. (I took a photo with my cell phone before putting the earrings back; once home, I may see about getting that from there to Flickr.)

And so to bed, and a decent night's sleep this time.

[Lunch with oursin, dinner with Matt, Janet, their daughter, and pennski and her husband Chris. I've been in and out of Michelangelo's for tea often enough, close enough together, to have gotten into smiles and "hello again" with at least one of the counter staff.]

ETA: Elise has posted photos of the earrings; I'm fairly sure these are the ones I was working with.

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