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Macv Posts: 113
Member
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Hello, I've been suffering with chronic pain for over 18 years due to a very rare bone disease. I fought for over 3 years to get my disability benefits while my attorney's did nothing but catalog all the information that I gathered for them. I finally won my disability after I fired my attorney's and got a hearing in front of a judge and a medical professional from the Department of Social Security. Due to the rarity of my disease, it was difficult to win my case. Nearly every other adult with this disease who ever had an active case of it as an adult had been diagnosed with bone cancer. This is a chilhood disease with tumors which grow along with the child's own growth spurts. Most children, just as myself, are diagnosed at or around the age of 2 because of the large growth spurt we all go through between 1 & 2 years of age. My case became active and progrssive again when I was just 27 but the tumors weren't malignant...thankfully. The fact that I had to take large dosages of pain medications was actually how I finally won my case. I argued the fact that, due to having to take those medications and that nearly all companies now have drug testing before hiring along with the fact that those company's insurance companies wouldn't insure an employee for who was taking the type of medication I had to take made me a liability to any company who hired me. That wasn't the reason I was no longer able to work but it was a reasonable explaination as to why I'd be unable to find gainful employment. Due to this being an actual part of my being declared permanently disabled and that it was listed as such in my disability award letter, it's made it much easier on my doctors who have to prescribe the medication as well as giving them an "out" if they're ever investigated due to prescriptions written to me. For those of you who are fighting for disability, whether you have an attorney or not, you may want to use this as part of your argument for disability. I was able to work part time at a few companies after my doctors got my medication regulated to the point where I could handle the pain the medication didn't help as well as my being able to maintain my mental faculties ( a very fine line ). I was honest with those companies as well as on the forms I had to fill out for the required drug tests and brought with me a letter from my doctors stating my physical limitations as well as the fact that, as long as I didn't have to do anything which irritated my condition, I was able to work part time. I never did want to live a sedentary life style, having been a very active person most of my life, and I just didn't feel right if I wasn't contributing financially to my family even though I did get S.S.D. benefits. Since I was only 27 when I became disabled and I had worked for my family's business since age 13 and was paid with new furniture, payments on my car, and other non taxed payments in liue of a portion of my paycheck as well as never being paid over time (which is all legal if working for family at a very small business if it's written up in the "right way" by an acountant) I only recieved just over $400/month from S.S.D. which, over the years has only increased to $700/month. On top of that, I've worked part time for 8 of the 15 years I've been on disability yet my benefits haven't increased by the amount I've paid in during that time. I find all of this a bit sickening since I recently found out that my sister-in-law who's lived off the state all her life will soon be getting 2x's the amount that I get. Besides working for my family's business, I'd worked at least 2 jobs and, for 5 years, 4 jobs from the time I was 16. I've seen so much corruption when it comes to those recieving S.S. benefits and heard of so many ppl who really do need it who are fighting for years to get it who've worked and paid their taxes most of their lives that it truely makes me sick. I've personally turned in two people who ewre fraudulently receiving S.S. benefits yet nothing was ever done about it. These 2 ppl never even received letters stating that they were to be investigated. I believe that something needs to be done to protect those of us who truely are in need and truely have real disabilities to get the benefits that they deserve while others who are truely scamming the government be investigated and made to pay back anything they received. This includes those recieving S.S. benefits who aren't even U.S. citizens. Does any one else have similar stories of being cheated out of benefits or made to fight for years when it's clear that they're truely unable to work any longer after working and paying taxes as long as they were able to work? I'd like to hear how you all feel about this. Thank you for your time and for reading this. Macv
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