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Originally posted by map1131:

He asked me to fax it to him. I did and he discredited the doctor in my hearing and took the evidence from Dr C on Western Blot as credible evidence.

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LOVE IT!!!

Western Blot Explanation
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/42077

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--Lymetutu--
Opinions, not medical advice!

Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Judie:
Is there any way you can get in touch with your old doc???

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Posts: 310 | From Northeast | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged | 

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I am disabled with full SSD from bartonella like organism infection (BLO). My symptoms are photophobic headaches, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression and social phobia.

It took me four years to win SSD. When I first was diagnosed I wans't aware of lyme coinfections and thought it was chronic fatigue. I read about it and quickly figured out the MDs didn't know what was really going on and their treatment wasn't effective. This caused me to go to a holistic MD who was not ILADS trained who put me on the quack Marshall Protocol treatment and dismissed me when it failed and I asked too many questions via the internet.

I continued to search and learned about BLO from Dr. Burrascano's guidelines, articles and ILADS. This site put me in touch with my current MD, a non-ILADS doc who loosely follows their guidelines. In my experience Burrascano's guidelines aren't working for BLO, though they do suppress it temporarily. We have modified the protocol to include a new form of curcumin that seems to be doing the trick.

Regarding disability, I lost the first hearing because the first holistic MD didn't take good notes and didn't do regular functional documentation. Lyme disorders are not recognized impairments that give you an automatic win. Your records have to say labs ordered, have findings substantiating your diagnosis and document limitations throughout your care. So look over your records. If they aren't good you won't win on them, need to get your doctor to start documenting better now and order testing to substantiate a better diagnosis that is a mandatory win.

The only thing that saved me was that I noticed I had problems thinking and asked my counselor if any testing could substantiate it. He recommended a neuropsychological assessment and I was diagnosed with somatoform disorder because I had pain longer than six months. The diability psychiatrist completely ignored this diagnosis because it was a month short on the time and said I was fit to work. My lawyer appealed, submitted the new somatoform diagnosis and it was a mandatory automatic win.

In front of the neuropsychologist I was totally honest and did my best in testing. When I froze during testing I told her so. I also started the session with a handout on BLO from ILADS, wore sunglasses for the light and took breaks. All these things were in my favor. She concluded I really believed I was mentally ill, believing I had pain when I didn't. This is an insulting diagnosis but what do you expect from a medical diagnosis that doesn't believe in intracellular infections? I don't care, I still get my disability check every month.

These judges are very arbitrary and biased. According to my attorney they discriminate against younger people, especially men, because these are more costly to the system in benefits and it is assumed they are lying. At best, they usually give only around a 60% approval rate and they don't care about you in the least. My judge ignored evidence to build a flimsy case against me and gave the holistic MDs opinion no weight despite the US Dept of Education accepting it and fully discharging my student loans.

If you have mental symptoms, get over to a state psychologic testing facility, apply for charity care and get tested. If you've had pain longer than six months hopefully they'll give you a somatoform diagnosis also and you'll get an automatic win.

As for conduct in front of the judge (aka ALJ), remember that everything will be used against you. If you dress too nice, if you sit too long when you say you can't, etc. The judge is observing you and will note findings in the record and use it against you. Also, the judge will try to get you to wreck your own case. For example, a lawyer told me one woman lost when she said she couldn't lift 10 lbs but then said she liked to go bowling as a hobby.

When I lost the first ALJ hearing my attorney appealed the case and presented the new testing evidence. It was another 1-2 years wait. To speed things up I read the SSA website's guidelines and it said that people who threaten suicide or have urgent needs are given priority. I had complained to my counselor that I felt suicidal and so wrote a letter to SSA complaining that I was suicidal and told my physician and counselor this, that the judge was biased because he had ignored evidence and given my MD's opinion no weight (the latter my attorney wrote in his opinion). I referenced the new testing and mentioned that I didn't have health insurance (which was listed as a reason to speed up a case in their guidelines). I sent this letter to my attorney for approval and this sped up the appeal by about six months.

Appeals council sent it back to the same judge and he skipped another hearing and approved it based on the new testing and diagnosis. Magically all of the evidence (letters from friends about my condition, medication history) he ignored the first time suddenly mattered.

It is a difficult system to beat.
Good luck.

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Posts: 57 | From Raleigh, NC | Registered: Jun 2011  |  IP: Logged |