| It took long enough...
I lost everything in bankruptcy before it was over, but soon I'll be getting a little check every month!
I initially applied for SSDI in 2003, but didn't appeal after the first denial (on the advice of a lawyer because I was earning SOME money at the time), so I reapplied in Summer 2005, saying how it had gotten so much worse late in 2004. That was denied, appealed, denied again, appealed again, and finally got an ALJ Hearing. I forget when I contacted a new lawyer but he got me through to the hearing -- that wasn't too bad, but we ended up ammending my disablity date to when I applied in 2005 since I hadn't been able to go to the doctor during that interval and there was no documentation...
I lucked out with a sympathetic doctor (he's not even a specialist, just an ordinary family doctor!) who gave his written report in such a way as to lean in my favor and I was very lucky to get a sympatheic judge. I had heard many, many times in the last few years that the doctor's report is SOOOOO important to the judge. In my case, it was the Occupational guy who was so pivotal. They want to know if you can do SUSTAINED REGULAR FULL-TIME work of any kind. If you can't, that HAS to be supported by the doctor's report. And it did, so... I was approved! I was so damn tired of the whole mess by the time it finally came down that I am very glad I had that lawyer-- who cares that he's getting 25% of the backpay? It's money I never had in the first place, so...!?!
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