More help I hope

Last time I went to the doctor he gave me the names and numbers of drug assistant programs that would be able to assist me with meds. So I called one of the numbers today finally and I am getting paper work in the mail to fill out and send back to them. One of the meds I need and the one that helps the most is Rituxan and is 12, 000.00 for one IV and I have to have 2 of them within two weeks of each other. The other one is Humaria which is 3,600.00 for a three months supply. So for some one with little or no income, it is impossible to get. So hopefully help is on the way with this as well. I have made the initial call and paper work will be here in 5 to 7 working days. Horray horray!!!

A note on the attnys as well. I sent my paper work back to them. It went to Tampa Fl. so I am waiting on word from them as to what is my next step. As I said earlier, they are supposed to contact me with my own personal worker and they will handle SS/Disability directly. I don't have to do anything else at this time. So keep praying that this is the last time I have to go through this. As I am really swollen and hurting at this time. I can hardly walk and left hand only has three knuckles right now due to the swelling. But as anyone who knows me, I just keep going and going. I will not give up and I will not stop living just because I am in pain!!!! The tough have to keep going and I am a pretty tough old lady :)!!! I can not give up living because of the way the Government thinks I should be reacting to a crippling disease. I will be crippled soon enough without them trying to rush it!!

So my motto is keep on going and pray that they will come to their senses, sooner or later. I guess later than sooner as I see it now. After 3 years, sooner does not look like an option.

Thanks for all the support. I know that you guys do not leave comments and things but I do know that you read and that is enough support for me at this time to at least know that everyone takes the time to read and see the slooooow progress that we are making with this. Thanks again and keep on praying that things will finally happen. My friend says to call it before it happens and it will come to happen, but I have called it before to no avail. However, I am calling it again and praying that the call is right this time.

Attny Hired

Well, Binder and Binder has decided that I have a case and has sent me information to fill out and send back to them. They have said that they would assist me in my quest for justice at this time. I have signed and sent back all the paperwork already and hopefully it won't be long before heads start to turn and I am treated with a little respect. I have read everything that they sent to me and I have given them power of attny to act on my behalf in my SS/disability case. They say that if I even get a call from SS that I am to give them the number to Binder and Binder and I am not to talk to them at all. I will get my very own personal "caseworker" to stay in contact with. I am excited!!!! I was told by some one who has used Binder and Binder that they never went to court or even talked to SS at all. Binder and Binder did it all!!!! So I am calling it as I see it and saying that I WILL GET MY DISABILITY with Binder and Binder working for me!!!!! They are awesome so far, just in the fact that they are willing to see that I can not live on a part time job of 15 to 20 hours a week at a sad salary of 7.00 an hour, and that I can not work full time due to the issues I have. Yea BINDER AND BINDER!!!! Wish me luck and keep praying that this will be the end!!!

Updates and hopefully good news

Okay guys, I have an update that I hope is good news. i got my first call from Binder and Binder that states something past the e-mail I told you about. I have given them all of the information about the doctors and the ER visits that I have has since I got here and the things that I have done and been through with SS in the past 3 years and especially the past 3 to 4 weeks with this on again off again as to where the appeal is. So after an hour on the phone answering all the questions that I could possibly answer for them, they are sending me a packet in the mail within the next 7 to 10 business days that has things for me to sign and all of that good stuff so they can get the info from the doctors and hospitals and whatever else they need. I hope that this is finally the end of a long road with a positive outcome. We will just have to wait and see. Once I get the paperwork signed and sent back to them, I will be assigned a case worker ( is what they called it) that will be the person I work with from now on and none of this calling and just talking to anyone that answers the phone. So I will be able to communicate with just one person!!!! What a good sound. I have spoken to Terry who was very good and nice and was very helpful but then you just have to find a way to get to her. After many transfers you are there but never know how long it will take. Then today I did all of my paperwork with Alexandria who was very kind and helpful and patient. It took an hour and she told me at the start that it would take about an hour or longer. So when they sent the e-mail letting me know what they would need, I got everything together and wrote everything down so that I would have it readily available when she asked. It helped her and she was very grateful for that. So I am set and ready to get going again and hoping for a better turn out this time.

And a great big thanks and hug and kiss to my daughter-in-law!!!! And why, you say? Because she has a friend that works for CNN and she asked if he had any advise for me and he said I was doing all the right things by contacting the people I have even though they have not responded to me. But he also gave us a link to go to for more help and we checked it out on a fast note last night but we are going to check into it more so we can look at it closely and see what I need to do. There is also a number to call and speak to someone there which may be the best way to get the answers we are looking for. So wish me luck on that and hopefully that will be another way to get something done. Way To Go, Michelle!!!!! Great Daughter-in-law, don't you think???

Hopefully Help is on the way

Okay a little bit of good news but not to much. I received an e-mail from Binder and Binder. Here is what it says:

"Congratulations!

After careful review of the information you have provided us, we feel that
you have a viable claim, and are willing to assist you in your pursuit of
Social Security Disability Benefits.

We take pride in winning cases as quickly as possible. Therefore, one of
our Intake Specialists will be contacting you within the next 2-3 days to
complete the paperwork necessary to get started."

So I will be hearing from them sometime this week I hope. Yea!!!! Me!!!!! But this is still just in the starting stages and I have been there before. So I have not gotten my hopes up yet. I am going to remain skeptical until I see money in my hand. I have been this close before. They want me to have information on hand when they call concerning my doctor's address and phone numbers and all meds I am taking and all the jobs I have had in the past 15 years. So that should help. We all know that I can't do hair anymore or computer work 8 hours a day or even work on the machines I was doing before I moved to Savannah. That was all I have done the past 15 yrs., so that should be a easy to show I can't do. Below is another part of the e-mail from them outlining SS/DS criteria for receiving benefits.

"The primary criteria needed to receive Social Security Disability benefits
is that you have a medical condition that has lasted or is expected to last
12 months in duration, and that this medical condition will prevent you from
performing any gainful employment in the National economy. When evaluating
claims, the Social Security Administration takes into account your age,
education, work history, and medical conditions. We must prove to the
Administration that you cannot perform your past work, and in some cases, no
work at all. "

Okay, past work is a hairdresser, a computer operator, and working on a machine that twists and turns my already deformed hands, as you can see by my picture of my hands that I have added as my picture. So how would you like your hair cut today? Crooked or straight and would you like for me to do it for you? Or how fast would you like your info typed into the computer that is needed in a hurry? Not very fast, I hope because it takes me more time to proof read to make sure I have hit the right keys than it does to type the info in!!!! It may take me 30 minutes to write an e-mail or other things. My hands give out and begin to hurt to the point that I have to stop and rest to finish. So when you guys get a blog from me, keep in mind that it may take me a long time to finish it unless my hands are not hurting the day I am writing. And I have driven my husband to work for the last two days and my left hand hurts very bad from just holding the steering wheel. Okay done for the day!!!

Here are just a few pictures of hands and feet to show you what I look like.

More Obstacles

Okay there is more drama and more obstacles in my way to make me want to give up and say "I Surrender". But my daughter--in-law says I can't give up now. Okay the appeal has been filed with the hearing board and I did that on the 23 of January. when I went to the SSO last week, the girl I spoke with said that she saw the "pending appeal in the system. So on Monday 3/9/09, I received a call from the attnys making sure that the appeal had been filed as this was my last day without having to start the whole thing over again. I called the 800 # for SS just to verify. Again nothing in the system. Being this was the last day, I was ready to kill someone just did not who to kill at this point. So I got up this morning and took my husband to work so that I would be at the SSO when it opened. And I was. I got a very nice lady who was not sure where the other girl had found her information last week. Instead of telling me that there was no pending appeal, she got on the phone with her supervisor who told her where to look for the info. this is where the going got tough. The intercom calling people back was so loud that the lady could not even hear her supervisor. She had to go to her and apologize for not being able to hear and asked her to help her in her office. Which she did and they did find the info I needed. She also asked that they turn the intercom down as it was so loud no one could hear. She asked me if it was that way in the lobby and advised her that it was really deafening. Back to the story!!! I asked if I could get a print out of the pending appeal info and was told again that I could not have one because it was done electronically. I advised that my attny needed it for his file. (even though they have not actually said they would take the case) Sometimes you have to pull all the stops. Wish I had more for this but I don't. Anyway, when she came back from her sups desk, she had a print out showing where they received my request for appeal on January 28 and where they started review on Feb 27. Wow, a whole month!!! What a surprise!!! Now it shows screened and ready for an analyst to review. But now I have a number to the office where the appeal is actually being reviewed. That was their first mistake, to give me a number t0 reach someone through. Of course, trying to get through is the first obstacle to have to fight. Anyways, as of now it is back to wait and see status again. In the meantime, I guess I just need to lay down and die so that I won't have any trouble receiving it this time. If I am dead, I would be able to draw it so, I guess that is when I will get it. Therefore they don't have to pay out too much. But seriously, this is getting ridiculous!!!!! So we will play the waiting game again and see what hoops I have to jump through next.

Next Hurdle

Okay it has been a while and I have had a few unexpected things happen. But for the latest on the disability BS. I sent in my appeal to the Appeals Board in Falls Church Va to appeal the judges decision. I also decided to call Binder and Binder (you know the Attnys that say they can help you get your disability), I got a return call and they said that they wanted me to fax over all of the paperwork I had from the ALJ's decision and a statement from my doctor. So I did as I was asked to do and I got a second call asking me to refax that everything did not come through,. So I faxed it a second time and got the same call. I told them I had sent everything that the judge sent to me. At that point I was told that I should have a 16 page report from the judge on how he came to his decision and the papers he reviewed to get there. I informed them that all I had was the pages of his decision and that I had sent them all I had. So on the phone again with SS 800 # (man are they stupid!!) I was told that there was no other paperwork and that after the decision was made by the judge that they filed everything electronically and the paperwork was shredded for my protection(who's protection????) So then I asked about my appeal that I sent back on Jan. 23 and was told that it had not been recieved in Falls Church
Va yet and to give it a couple of more weeks. In the meantime I had sent all of the papers I had to Binder and Binder and also added a CD that we made of my feet and hands so that they could see the shape they were in. I also took pictures of the same angles of feet and hands to the ALJ. So I suppose they were shredded as well. So while I am trying to find out what is happening with my appeal and them having no record of it being filed, I get another call from the attnys office stating that I needed to file my appeal right away because my deadline for my 60 days is up on March 9, 2009. So I call them back and explain that I did file the appeal and that I had just talked to SS two days before and they have no record of my appeal in teh system to give it a couple more weeks. The girl I was talking to went to her supervisor and came back and told me if they had no record of it, to go to my SS office here in Savannah and have them fax it to Falls Church. I went to the SS office on Wedensday after a doctor's appointment and the girl that helped me get everything transferred here to Savannah looked in the system for me and low and behold, there is a pending appeal and she found the date they recieved the paperwork, which was Jan 28, 2009. So after all the 800 # had to say, I don't know how much was true. The attnys office told me that if I waited the 2 weeks they wanted me to wait, I would have had to start all over if the appeal was never filed. So here I go again!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am getting so tired of all of this stupid stuff. No wonder people give up. The 800 # for SS said they had never seen a case go this far so they did not know what to do about it. Now it is back to wait and see.