I'm new here so I'll keep my story short.. I was feeling unbelievable tired for a few weeks and had headaches and burned through my sick days, and after some testing my doctor said I was positive for Lyme and sent me to a specialist. I have been so tired and my joints ache to the point where I cannot imagine going to work. I am very worried, I have a family to support. Will the test results be sufficient evidence to claim short or long term disability? I've never been on disability before and I have no idea how it works. Thank you
Posts: 4 | From MA | Registered: Aug 2011
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AZURE WISH
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 804
posted
I am not sure how the hole diability thing works except ssd. but
Because this is your first post i wanted to make sure the "specailist" you are going to see is really lyme literate...we refer to them as llmd.
there arent alot of llmds around.
lyme can be tricky and complicated. ticks carry other diseases we call coinfections and someone can be infected with lyme and coinfections.
Someone can help you find a llmd if you are not sure you have one. If you need help verifying your dr is a llmd post in seeking a dr. We do not post drs names on the board. just the first intial ...like Dr. X from NJ
Hopefully someone can give you some disability info soon.
posted
This is what happened to me. I got Lyme, got the 30 day treatment, and kept going to work. First my right knee started bothering me and I got on crutches. Then my left. It kept getting worse and worse.
I went out on sick leave and then short term disability with Aetna. At first they were nice but after 4 months they cut me off. I stayed off from work for a year till they forced me to go back. Then my boss put me on a firing project. I retired early instead..
I had been a star employee for 15 years at a very well known goverment entitly. I had never hardly missed a day of work. That meant nothing.
Aetna had a doctor in Michigan review my case. He never examined me directly. All he did was take the words of one doctor that I was no longer seeing to deny my benefits.
Posts: 15 | From Rockville, MD | Registered: Jun 2011
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lpkayak
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5230
posted
mistic-good info. thanks.
-------------------- Lyme? Its complicated. Educate yourself. Posts: 13712 | From new england | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
If you can get a doctor to say CFIDS or Fibro, that is a start. Labels are not what gets you approved but it helps.
A doctor has to document that you can not function to do normal things every day. It takes about 2 years to get SSDI.
Documentation from your doctor is everything. Most people are denied once or twice. At the second denial, you go to a hearing. I got an attorney at that point and was approved. Still took two years. Just now finding out now that I have Lyme.
-------------------- Faithful
Just sharing my experience, I am not a doctor. Posts: 2682 | From Colorado | Registered: Oct 2009
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-------------------- Persistence, persistence, persistence!!! "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence... Persistence and determination are omnipotent." attributed to Calvin Coolidge Posts: 599 | From USA | Registered: Jun 2011
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AZURE WISH
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 804
posted
get one that specailzes in disability. i would ask around for satisified customers.
maybe contact local lyme, cfs, ms,fibro,lupus groups and see if anyone has any reccomendations.
maybe the staff at your drs office even has a suggestion who some of there patients have used.
lpkayak
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5230
posted
faithful,
i know what you said is true in some states. it is like that in ny.
but all states are different. and age and amount you have paid in make a difference too. if you are older and have paid a lot in they move you along.
i got on in 6 months. i did have a lawyer but everyone doesn't need one. it depends on the state and your specific situation. again in ny you do need one.
i needed one not to get on but because of the amount they give me cuz my income was complicated
anyway...it is very different in some states. i think i worked in the hardest state and retired and got on in the easiest state
-------------------- Lyme? Its complicated. Educate yourself. Posts: 13712 | From new england | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
In CA, short term disability (CA SDI) kicks in after a week missed from work.
Posts: 6 | From CA | Registered: Dec 2011
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Rivendell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19922
posted
If you are applying for SSDI, www.jamesdisabilitylaw.com has some good forms for your doctor to fill out. It is important that the doctor include documentation along with the form such as test results, office notes, observations, etc.
Also, if you have cognitive problems, depression, or anxiety it is important to get this documented also. Either see a therapist, or tell SSA that you have these problems, and they will send you to a psych doc who can document these. But you must be honest. Don't try to fool the doctor. (Also it is important that you show that you are trying to get better, such as taking medication.)
If you truly have these problems, then it will give your case a boost.
Best wishes.
Posts: 1358 | From Midwest | Registered: Apr 2009
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Rivendell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19922
posted
Another good source for help with SSDI is the website called "Disability Secrets". In addition to good advice on winning disability, at the bottom of the page are links for SSA forms for your doctors to fill out. One for physical problems and one for mental problems.
IMPORTANT: Be sure that documentation such as test results, office notes, xrays, etc. are ATTACHED to these forms. Don't depend on the SSA or the disability judge to go through the huge pile of medical records to find the proof.
Posts: 1358 | From Midwest | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
I had a very hard time with short-term disability. They wanted all new tests every three weeks (tests, incidently, that my medical insurance would not cover). Long term disability has been a litle easier so far. For me the battles with the disability carrier started getting a little easier when some Fry blood tests came back with pictures of organisms in my blood. Also about the same time i was diagnosed with CFS and Fibromaligia.
-------------------- Jeff
I have the complete cocktail of Lyme, babs & bart (with babs most prevalent).
First infected in 1987, reinfected 2006. Posts: 10 | From Gaithersburg, MD | Registered: Oct 2010
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