I forgot to tell you I didn't go in today. Working 3.5 days last week nearly killed me. I can't work that much which is the truth. I'm doing it out of dedication, extra money when I leave and a couple other reasons but I can't do it without my body continuing to hurt real, real bad. Then comes the fatigue and brain fog and I'm incapacitated for days. I just don't know why this flare never ends. Stress I guess. Considering working 12-15 hours is an honest assessment on my part and my doctor says I can't work the majoruty of the time then I don't want to be called a liar if someone from my retirement board checks my attendance again. I'm told that they got a report already and won't ask for an update but seeing I stressed my lack of ability to work several times maybe they will check again so why take the chance of working in pain, making myself get worse, and risk this source of income. My boss, who is great, said for me to come in 2 days a week so i'm tryiing that for now. I suppose in your case you can't be working at all but in my case we can drag ourselves in until we get our approval. I undestand why they come in as well. We are throwing away good jobs at good schools and it is so hard to get back in once you leave so there is no rule that you have to be out of work to apply for teacher disability. It's a totally unusual process. There is absolutely no appeal yet they give your doctor the final say so if they don't approve you but they can't deny you then all they can do is ask for more information. It hasn't happened yet anyway where the commiittee has refuted the claims of another doctor (yet I still worry) but people are still stupid enough to apply without even having a doctor or have the doctor write back "patient is not disabled". That's not me. Last year someone was approved for plantar fasciitis (which I have also). My application was very long as well. It is critical for the doctor to conclude writing a clear statement of disability. He may not have known the importance of that but my research ahead of time did, Then there is a separate section where you list your diagnoses and degrees of impairment. We put down 6 or 7 soilid ones but even then he didn't just repeat then all over again in his conclusion or it would not have been concise. Plus they never gave us what standards to use to determine degree of impairment. This isn't an injury claim so he would say completely impaired due to RA, etc... There was really very little guidance so maybe I'll have to have the doctor fix something and then I won't get it until November. I thinks that it for me though. I get it in October or in November. I suppose I should try not to think about it but you know that I will for weeks to come.

Thank you Linda! I am getting worried about the possibility of cysts or whatever the heck is brewing in my knees. I am going give my dr a call tomorrow maybe get the mri set up soon. Do people with RA ever get full body scans to check all their joints for damage? Was just wondering...

Thanks for the welcome; I really love this site you guys are so awesome!!

Debora

Hi Greg! I hope you had a good day today. It's been getting cooler here and it's been overcast. Wonder if that's why I'm waking up in more pain than usual.

So, you're right I don't have an attorney but I hired from social security advocates of America. They gather everything from SS that they had to begin with from when I got denied. He filed my appeal and yes, the hearing will be on the federal level with an administrative law judge. But where everything began with the application at DDS is at the state level. All of my conditions including a form of muscular dystrophy were in that application. And young enough? Lol, well, I just turned 47 not saying that's old but I think I sure feel old enough with this added to all the other stuff.

I emailed him today to see how far in the process we are and all he said was they are still working on it. I told him I had to move to NC wondering if that would change anything but it's only temporary and he said it would not hurt my case to live out of state for now.

My rheum records still haven't downloaded to the web portal. If they aren't there tomorrow by noon, I'll have to call to find out what happened. I'm anxious to have a look.

I really hope you are taking it easy but think I need to listen to my own advice! I'm as bad as you lol!! All this worrying is getting us nowhere right? But it helps to have an ear .
Have a good evening - Debora

Hi Debora,
I believe a federal judge is even beyond an administrative law judge. A federal judge is appointed by the predisent of the US. This would occur in federal court and could take years. Hopefully you won't need that but if you do you'll sure know by then what your doctor wrote, have plenty of time to be re-evaluated and of course you'd have an attorney who would no doubt know doctors to send you to who will write down that you will no longer have the functional capacity to work.

My day was awful. I needed a cane for the first time in my life. Pain turned to fatigue which turned to brain fog. I'm off again tomorrow and again on Friday. I'm pretty much unable to work with any consistency as my application states. All I can say is I pray it goes through on the first shot as my dcotor wrote a very powerful argument for me.

Greg, I'm hoping your day was much better today and that you are taking it easy. Is the cane helping?

I talked to the Drs nurse today to give a message to him about my knees and I have some concerns about my labs I just finally got to see. So, I should probably hear back tomorrow. I also asked about the disability stuff.

I'm hoping and praying for both of us that we have done all we need so we can stop worrying. It looks like mine may go on for a year or so who knows. That's shameful..

It's absultely shameful to make people wait that long! Was not such a good day here and tomorrow I'll try and work. Keep me posted on what you find out.