Ankylosing Spondylitis Support Group

An update to the last post, I am now on unemployment sick benefits and for the next few months the way things are now. I was jumping the gun a bit with disability, thats good news isn't it? oh boy I'm not bad enough to disabled.

You're the only one who can decide if your bad enough. If my job left me feeling at my worst everyday, I would go on disability. Thankfully most days are better than my bad days.

Thanks for that Diane. Almost a month now I've been off. I'm now taking,Tramadol which makes me dizzy but helps the pain and Indomethacin which made me sick for two weeks so I stopped taking that and went back to celebrex. Tramadol helps but I still use Tylonol 3's also just not as many as before the Tramadol. Back to the dr on the 5th, I have 5 months from the 5th to repair or else I'll automatically go on long term disability.

Hi there,

I've been on disability for about 7 years. You have to do what you have to do. It's simple, it's necessary and you'll be glad you did it. Maybe you can take time to take care of your body and help the disease. You're body should come first, its the only one you have and if you don't care for it now, there's no going back later. I've had the disease for 24 years. Good luck!
Elizabeth

Thanks for that Elizabeth, very well put and sensable sounding. I'm certainly leaning toward that way of thinking. Being home all the time has allowed me to eat three meals a day which I wouldn't do if I were working because I'd be worried about making it to a toilet on time. I would'nt eat breakfast or lunch and just have dinner when I got home and a snack before bed. In the last month I've put on 2 pounds instead of routinly loosing it. As for work I'm a community care worker helping folks like myself in there homes before they go into a care facility. My clients lately I've noticed are increasingly in better shape than me so I should take that as a hint. Thanks for your words I'm not nearly so worried about whether I will or will not go on disability. I have 4.5 months to go and it happens automatically if there are no improovments. I am now taking Flurbiprofen instead of Celebrex and Tylonol 3 and Endocet for pain. The speciallist told me about a $20,000 a year treatment for AS but as the fusing of my spine is so advanced it would be a waste of tax payers money thats if the Gov will cover it, don't want to go there. Thats the treatment where it's possible to end up with something worse than you started with like Cancer. It'll be 38 years for me I think I gave it a good run.

Hi, the truth about as and any other autoimmune disease is that they all come in varying sizes, from light to king size and effect everyone somewhat different with different intensities, lupus is the same.

So the cross you have to bare is Lupus I'm sorry mate, don't know much of anything about Lupus other than it's not good. I hope your making out allright. I have 4 months to go now and disability automatically kicks in if I don't get better. Not likely thats going to happen. The Flurbiprofen didn't work out (rough on the guts)so I'm back on Celebrex with Tylonol#3's and Endocete for pain. Thank you all for being here you guys understand better than my doc. He asked me yesterday if I was thinking of going back to work? There's not a day goes by I don't want to go back to work I miss my clients. The truth is though some of my clients are in better shape than me right now so how much help would I be to them. Take care all.

AS is considered as a disabling condition. Disability always rejects claims the first time around. You need to re-apply with the assistance of a disability lawyer...there are plenty of them out there. That is what I am in the process of doing. I am like you....I worked and worked for most of my life, two jobs at a time for most of it...then one day, I just started to go downhill rapidly, and the hardest part was coming to terms with the fact that I just CAN'T DO everything I used to do....that part is still hard for me. Good luck with everything! Carole

Thanks for that Carole, I'm starting to think luck may have something to do with it. It may not be as straight foreward as I thought it would be. I may have dug a deep hole for myself too by lieing on every job application form I ever made out. Where it asks about my health I've never addmitted to a back problem I've allways said my health was good. The disability benefits that I'm supposed to get automatically after six months will not happen I'm afraid. The insurance co that provides the benefits is bound to not give them when they realise I lied. In my world tho I figured if I'd never lied about it I wouldn't have been hired by anybody and would've been on disability a long time ago. This just occured to me so now I have something else to pull my hair out over. Thx again for the good luck I'll likely need it. I'm with you in regards to the way I feel about just not being able to perform like I could. It's tough and I still have trouble getting that through to my brain, it doesn't want to accept the fact I can't do things I used to be able to do as little as a year ago. I'm very sorry for your loss, thats the toughest thing any parent should go through is the loss of a child. My brother just recently passed away and my Father a few years before him. My Mother went through hell, loosing her hubby was bad but loosing her Son was the worst. For me loosing my brother was a shock, he was my older bigger brother and I thought he'd be there the next day but he wasn't. Good luck to you too Carole and all the best for your future.

Not there yet but in the meentime I'm still on Celebrex and Tylonol 3's but now also take for pain and sleep Lyrica and Oxycodone for pain. The pills change but the resons I take them stay the same. Pain is much more bearable but I still can't work and unless I stop taking pills I can't drive. Early March sometime is disability day. It's been over three months but I'm still getting sick pay from work thankyou very much but it's bound to run soon. Then I'll be into Gov red tape etc but we'll see won't we?