posted
Has anyone applied for and been successful in getting it? With Lyme disease? My husband has footdrop in addition to Babs. He hasn't been able to work in a year. Its up to $2000 per month for drugs. Just wondering if anyone has gone this route.
Posts: 305 | From United States | Registered: Nov 2011
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posted
My husband has SSDi. He got his award not because he has Lyme Disease but because of the severe peripheral neuropathy caused by Lyme and co..
There is a company called Alsup who is very good at getting SS awards for people. My husbands short term disability company hired them so that they could quit paying and have it covered by SS.
If your husband is unable to work then I am fairly certain that he has many physical problems caused by Lyme. You may want to consider applying for SSDI and hiring someone like Alsup. Then focus on the problems that Lyme has caused, not the Lyme itself.
Good luck! Best wishes.
Posts: 333 | From Lyme Here Too | Registered: Mar 2010
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posted
Thanks. He hasn't been able to work for over a year now. he also has severe neuropathy of left leg. Walking is a problem now. Uses brace and cane. Lyme and Babs.
Posts: 305 | From United States | Registered: Nov 2011
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Keebler
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Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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sammy
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posted
If you search you will see that I recently went through this process myself. It is terribly stressful for someone so sick.
Get a lawyer to help you. Don't try to do this alone.
Being approved for SSD is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I physically need it. I cannot work, I cannot provide for myself. But it breaks my heart that I cannot do these things. I so desperately want to be able to. I miss my job terribly, I loved what I did. I just want to be well.
My doctors all started pushing me to apply for SSD long be for I was mentally prepared to do so. I was struggling at work, had cut my hours from part-time to what was minimum to receive health ins.
Three years ago I got sicker, my doctor put me on medical leave because it was not safe for me to work. I was not able to go back to work. As much as it hurt, I had to go apply for SSD.
Despite full support from all my doctors, including my neuro and having multiple diagnoses, my initial application and appeal were denied. My case had to go before the judge.
As you can see from the time I applied to the time of decision, 3yrs passed. I got sicker and accumulated more serious diagnoses, including the primary immune deficiency (which in my case allowed chronic/constant life threatening infections).
The judge was unbelievably fair. I didn't have to go to the hearing. She made her decision the day before. Thank God because I was too sick and in too much pain to go!
Posts: 5237 | From here | Registered: Nov 2007
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sammy
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posted
I wrote much more than I meant to and probably did not answer your question. Thanks cognitive dysfunction!
You need to prove that you cannot work at all. You cannot do any jobs that you've had in the past and you cannot do any new jobs that are available now.
If they think that you can work at all, they will deny you.
You must have an overwhelming amount of evidence to support your case.
In my case, the evidence was there from the beginning. No one looked at it because of my age. I was denied automatically (per my lawyer). Sad but true. If you are older, closer to retirement they are more likely to go ahead and grant you SSD.
Talk with your docs. They will know best when it is time. Listen to them. I wish that I did.
Posts: 5237 | From here | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
There is some great advice here, thank you all. I have also filed and am currently waiting for the decision on my reconsideration. Unfortunately, I have no doctors to help me or back me up. And I'm only 34. Not feeling too hopeful...
-------------------- Untreated Lyme for 25+ years. Two kids, too much pain & fatigue, no hope of ever being able to treat. Posts: 310 | From Northeast | Registered: Mar 2010
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posted
Well you have to have worked for the last 5 out of 10 years. My husband has been retired for 6. So scratch the SSDI
Posts: 305 | From United States | Registered: Nov 2011
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ConnieMc
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
quote:Originally posted by lyme-o: Well you have to have worked for the last 5 out of 10 years. My husband has been retired for 6. So scratch the SSDI
But was he sick before his insured status expired? Provided a person has worked and paid taxes 5 years in a row, then retires, the eligibility for SS Disability lasts for 5 years. If your husband became ill (for the purposes of this example) 4 years 8 months after he last worked, then technically, he became ill before his insured status expired.
If you have evidence that your husband showed signs of illness before that 5 year mark hit, even if you didn't know what the illness was at the time, you should still pursue it.
Even if he is just now applying, but has been ill for over a year, he should still be eligible to proceed.
Besides, the older you are, the easier it is to obtain SS Disability. The regulations loosen up quite a bit when a person is age 50 or older, and especially if the person is age 60 or over.
You yourself said in your first post that he has not been able to work for a year.
If a SS employee told him he could not apply as he was no longer insured, that is wrong, wrong, wrong. Contact me by PM if you think this applies to your husband and I will explain in a little more detail.
Posts: 2274 | From NC | Registered: Oct 2000
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