| Marnia He Sapa 2006-04-28, 6:00 pm |
| MD or Naturopath, I don't know, both would not hurt. I was diagnosed by
a doc through the student health services at the U I was attending. She
wrote letters, but they were basically ignored. What I didn't know was
that the applications are reviewed by a clerk flipping through a big
book of Social Security regulations. It is SSA definitions you must
meet. Yes, you must be disabled by a medical condition, usually the
result of injury or illness, and that condition has to be on the SSA
list. But disabled in SSA terms doesn't mean confined to an iron lung.
It means you can't work a normal 8 hour a day, 40 hour a week job. The
fact that you may not be able to be out of bed 40 hours a week doesn't
mean a thing. I think, and the student services attorney I spoke with
after the first denial of my claim said, and my doctor thinks, that SSA
routinely denies most claims to see if the claimant will just shut up
and go away. I was denied the first time because, according to the
clerk, I could at least sometimes walk, talk, and raise my hands above
my head. Not playing by their own definition of disabled, are they?
And so you appeal, which is a sort of second level application --
wherein you have to show new information. And this time the clerk
sitting in the desk next to the previous clerk will deny your claim.
Because two clerks in the same office are hardly going to find
differently, are they? And maybe this time you will go away and die in
a box under a bridge and save SSA paying your benefits. But you, who
have this rleationship with your life which includes notions like "for
richer or poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health"
stubbornly refuse to let the decision of a petty bureaucrat end your
life. So you appeal to the last stage, which is a review before an
Administrative Law Judge. Not a court judge. This judge is a judge of
the rules and regulations of Social Security. But for the first time,
you are speaking to a person. Now, this person holds your benefits in
their hand, which may, in a real sense, mean your life, but they also
have no medical training. They will have an "expert" in jobs present
also, and a recorder, both human and mechanical. Nobody, anywhere, with
any medical training, and not your doctor. The expert in jobs will have
reviewed your materials, remember, you have to have yet more and new to
submit even though none of them are qualified to assess any of it, and
that person may say something to the effect of, "If this person weren't
ill she could wash dishes eight hours a day, or pick beets, but she is
too (fill in an illness symptom). It doesn't matter that before you
fell ill you were a brain surgeon and if you weren't ill you could just
work as a brain surgeon. Nothing SSA presents will actually have
anything to do with you or your training or experience. The judge and
everyone will watch you closely. They will grill you for, in my case
and I am told this is usual, two hours. Two hours, starting at 8 a.m.
Even though you can barely sit up and by the end of the time don't know
where you live. They are watching you melt down. Frankly, I think
that's what convinced them in my case. It's a barbaric procedure, and
only people with no other resources for income will follow through.
Except con artists, who they are apparently trying to weed out. Which,
one would think, is where your physician testimony would be useful, but
SSA's job is apparently not to get benefits to citizens who need them,
but to pay out as little in benefits as possible, so though your
doctor's information is required, it is apparently pretty much
disregarded. The doctor they will send you to will be a psychologist or
psychiatrist, and that person will likely label you with some "disorder"
which will scorch your ego -- until you check with somebody else in the
field, and discover that the label is a "trash can" label for a
meaningless "disorder" that is really a signal to others in the
profession that they were supposed to find something psychologically
wrong with you and can't, but is and isuseful for humiliation and to
try to discourage you enough to drop the claim. SSA is hoping for a
diagnosis of clinical depression, which is not a disability under SSA
rules. But you have ME/CFS, the SSA-paid doctor really can't diagnose
something you don't have, hence the trash can diagnosis. It is
disgusting. Interestingly, when the state of Oregon had me see "another
doctor" for my disability review, she was disgusted too, and in her
report vigorously disputed the trash can diagnosis, as well as pointing
out that not only was I not clinically depressed, I was coping
remarkably well even though the illness imposes the need to adapt on a
continuous basis -- we never even know if we'll sleep at night. She put
me through two hours of tests too, and watched me melt. She was also
nice enough to send a copy of her report to my regular physician,
knowing I would get a copy -- she was very kind in that respect. So,
pushing your disability caim through SSA is at worst a time consuming
and rather cruel process, however, you have some advantages: you have a
place to live, your mom sounds supportive emotionally. You can realize
it's going to be a bit of a haul, contact Legal Aid for some help (that
may involve a waiting list), marshal your medical information and plan
on having to submit more twice, and hunker down for a process designed
to humiliate you into the ground. Endure. You've endured all ME/CFS
can throw at you for three years, you can endure the ego insults the SSA
will hurl. And then, you will have your disability benefits. They will
likely be small, but having a bit of your own money, to pay debts, to
contribute to household expenses, to buy birthday gifts and condolence
cards, even to splurge on the occassional bottle of sparkly toe paint to
make yourself laugh -- It's terrible that SSA punishes citizens who must
apply for benefits, but that's how it is. So be aware, crawl through
the hoops, and then it's done. And who knows? I had to do all this in
the early 1990's. Congress has smacked SSA re ME/CFS applicants since
then, so maybe it won't be such an ordeal. But really, even if it is,
it's worth it in the long run. And if you do remit sometime in the
future, and I surely hope you do, the financal help in the meantime will
really be a help. You can always discontinue if/when you remit.
Everyone will be pleased! Sorry I've been redundant, go for it! best,
Marnia
TiHooerba@AOL.COM wrote:
> but doesn't an MD rather than an ND have to say that I
>have CFS in order for me to qualify for Disability? I know that when you apply,
>they send you to the State's doctor as well, but I'm wondering how easy it
>is to get diagnosed with CFS by a doctor working for the State.
>
>
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