I am SO happy for you! Your post brought tears to my eyes! Wow - your fight is finally over - now you can breathe. I will definitely consider the way that you answered your questions - very smart. The consideration that pain is " subjective" just riles me - is that reason enough to deny someone who is disabled by it? I'm so sorry that you were hurting so much as you went to trial, it must have been hard - I hope that it didn't continue to flare badly after you returned home.
Again, I am so very happy for you, and I hope that you are feeling better today. It takes a while to sink in, doesn't it - before you can finally let yourself feel free of apprehension.
I am doing much better today. I am still in some pain, but not nearly as much. It is validating to be done with the social security process and I'm not sure why I feel that way. I'm wishing you a good day.
Jackie
Lily said:
Oh Jackie!
I am SO happy for you! Your post brought tears to my eyes! Wow - your fight is finally over - now you can breathe. I will definitely consider the way that you answered your questions - very smart. The consideration that pain is " subjective" just riles me - is that reason enough to deny someone who is disabled by it? I'm so sorry that you were hurting so much as you went to trial, it must have been hard - I hope that it didn't continue to flare badly after you returned home.
Again, I am so very happy for you, and I hope that you are feeling better today. It takes a while to sink in, doesn't it - before you can finally let yourself feel free of apprehension.
If you were me you should expect anything to happen. Of course every case is different, but I didn't have to go to my appeal appointment because an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ruled in my favor beforehand.
On one hand it was nice to get compensated (it was over 2.5 years in one lump sum), but I resented forking out $5,800 in lawyer fees. The only thing my lawyer did was to start making me fill out forms in long-hand, she thought I had been hurting my case because I was filing out forms using my computer (apparently she thought my computer created forms gave the impression I was capable of working). I felt the computer helped generate a more cogent argument. I'd only filled out one form long-hand before the ALJ ruling; I seriously doubt the one long-hand form made a difference, but I hesitate to guess the way the system works.
Looking back on it, I sure can't say the lawyer was all that much help (not for $5,800 anyway), I hired the lawyer expecting she'd represent me better in the final appeal, but the hearing never took place.
You do need to be aware that my case was different because I also had MS.
Thank you for the well wishes. I will keep you all in my pocket, to help me be brave and get through this. I also had to fill out some long-hand forms, until I said that I couldn't and they had one of their employees interview me and do it. I was hoping that they would filter it through and put it in lawyer-speak, but they just wrote it verbatim.
That you had to go through the wringer like that, with MS, is despicable - my friend with MS got it on the first try. Good for that ALJ.
Well, tomorrow is my hearing for Federal Disability. Please wish me strength and hope. I am actually hoping that I will be in pain at that time, so that he can see just how much it disrupts my cognitive abilities. I was yesterday morning, so I did out-loud answers to my lawyer's questions, and I could not even get full sentences out. That is what I want the judge to see. I was feeling nauseaous from standing while doing it. I had to give up halfway through and lie down.
So any prayers and well wishes are greatly appreciated.
You'll be just fine, Lily. In fact, jump up and down a dozen times before you have to get up and speak (privately in the bathroom or something)-that should kick in a good dose of pain :)!
Just as an FYI, back in November I responded to you after you had just been approved for long-term disability insurance and I was hoping for the same outcome...I just found out last Monday that I am approved for long-term disability from my former employer and the check is in the mail!!! I haven't been paid since last August 2010, so this is a huge relief for me, my family, and my amazingly patient creditors! It turns out that my Trigeminal Neuralgia diagnosis got changed by a second opinion doctor (the insurance company's Independent Medical Examiner that they chose for me) to Trigeminal Neuropathy. Somehow it's a broader definition and approval was immediate!
Don't forget to breathe!
Best Wishes, you WILL get it!
Andrea
Lily said:
Hi Friends,
Well, tomorrow is my hearing for Federal Disability. Please wish me strength and hope. I am actually hoping that I will be in pain at that time, so that he can see just how much it disrupts my cognitive abilities. I was yesterday morning, so I did out-loud answers to my lawyer's questions, and I could not even get full sentences out. That is what I want the judge to see. I was feeling nauseaous from standing while doing it. I had to give up halfway through and lie down.
So any prayers and well wishes are greatly appreciated.
The best of luck to you. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.
Jackie
Lily said:
Hi Friends,
Well, tomorrow is my hearing for Federal Disability. Please wish me strength and hope. I am actually hoping that I will be in pain at that time, so that he can see just how much it disrupts my cognitive abilities. I was yesterday morning, so I did out-loud answers to my lawyer's questions, and I could not even get full sentences out. That is what I want the judge to see. I was feeling nauseaous from standing while doing it. I had to give up halfway through and lie down.
So any prayers and well wishes are greatly appreciated.
Although this is a bit off subject, can you-or anyone out there with TN-tell me if your nausea is a "daily." I have had nausea and vomiting (if I don't get myself a shot of promethezine in time) for over two years, at the onset of my TN, yet two doctors are baffled by the nausea and vomiting. I know it's not the medications I take, albeit many, just curious if all or most of us suffer from this. The nausea I get just comes out of nowhere or if I exert myself vacuuming, etc.
Please do let me know if anyone suffers from chronic nausea and/or vomiting.
Thank you, Lily and All!
Andrea Strong said:
You'll be just fine, Lily. In fact, jump up and down a dozen times before you have to get up and speak (privately in the bathroom or something)-that should kick in a good dose of pain :)!
Just as an FYI, back in November I responded to you after you had just been approved for long-term disability insurance and I was hoping for the same outcome...I just found out last Monday that I am approved for long-term disability from my former employer and the check is in the mail!!! I haven't been paid since last August 2010, so this is a huge relief for me, my family, and my amazingly patient creditors! It turns out that my Trigeminal Neuralgia diagnosis got changed by a second opinion doctor (the insurance company's Independent Medical Examiner that they chose for me) to Trigeminal Neuropathy. Somehow it's a broader definition and approval was immediate!
Don't forget to breathe!
Best Wishes, you WILL get it!
Andrea
Lily said:
Hi Friends,
Well, tomorrow is my hearing for Federal Disability. Please wish me strength and hope. I am actually hoping that I will be in pain at that time, so that he can see just how much it disrupts my cognitive abilities. I was yesterday morning, so I did out-loud answers to my lawyer's questions, and I could not even get full sentences out. That is what I want the judge to see. I was feeling nauseaous from standing while doing it. I had to give up halfway through and lie down.
So any prayers and well wishes are greatly appreciated.
Ahhhhhhhh..........OK, it's over. I am so soooooo drained and tired from the ordeal. The hearing went strangly. My lawyer was to ask all of the questions, and we had decided the order of them, but instead, the judge asked ALL of the questions. I kept expecting him to transfer me over to her. Then he said that he had heard enough, and was ready to make a decision, and he did what's called a "bench" decision, or something - in other words, he was going to decide right then and there. And he awarded me disability. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe that he made the decision then and there. I think that he had probably researched it. I missed so much of what I wanted to say, I had so much more to tell him, thinking that he would eventually get to the question, but my husband is right, it doesn't matter - it's simply pass or fail, and I passed. My lawyer said that he only makes the bench decisions maybe 5% of the time. She also said that since she has been working with him, he has NEVER asked all of the questions. Oh god, I am so grateful, and I am so exhausted. We are celelbrating by getting some big old cheeseburgers and fries and onion rings, whichwe never let ourselves have. We are too tired, and I am hurting too much, to get out of the house and go somewhere special.
Andrea, I get nausea all of the time - I just switched over to zofran, the reglan wasn't working. I just attribute it to the pain, because that is when it happens. I am generally not nauseous otherwise.
Thank you so much for walking with me through this all, and I hope that this gives hope to others out there who are trying. The judge said that if they had only reviewed it right during the application and the appeal processes, that it should never have reached the trial stage.
Your hearing sounds like it went about like mine did. My entire hearing only took 20 minutes. Everyone else was in there for 45 minutes to an hour and a half.
Now the hard part is waiting for the paper trail. So, from my experience, it took my judge the full six weeks to send out the decision on paper. I just got it on the 31st of January and my hearing was on December 15th. The paperwork says that the judge's decision now is sent to my local SSA office for processing and can take up to 60 days to be completed. So, now I'm waiting again.
But, the relief of a fully favorable decision is wonderful! Again, congratulations. I'm glad you don't have to worry anymore.
Lily, congratulations after a very long ordeal. Getting LTD at 60% or 70% will help ease your financial stress. What law firm did you use to help you win your LTD case? I am working a modified part-time mgt job and I have been with this company for over 24yrs and they initially denied my paid sick leave(short-term disability) and then reinstated it .The ADA committee just heard my case and will not approve with accomodation my mgt job working 20-30 hrs. My options are work full-time or I will now have to go on full-time PSL and I am hoping they pay for the accumulated days I have earned. If so then I will be terminated and have to fight with the long term disability company. I need you help on who you used. I do have attorneys I know in the local area and have asked them who they know who specializes in this area. It appears it was worth using an attorney in your case. I am so happy for you! Anything you can suggest will be welcomed.
I will keep it short, I am not doing to well today. My private LTD carrier recommended Social Security Law Group, so I just went with them. There were smaller companies locally, but I chose to go with this national one. There are pluses and minuses to this. I had to get used to being handed from one specialist to the next through the course of my time with them, but this turned out to be a positive, as they specialize in just the one step in a long case, but I had to trust the process, and worried much about that when I was turned down at the first two levels. It also felt odd to work with a lawyer whom I had never seen, and whom I had only a few phone conversations with, at the very last stage prior to trial. She had, however, researched my case very thoroughly from all of the med records and notes, and she knew the judge at the trial. I had been initially told that I would be getting a lawyer who had won TN cases before, but it turned out that she was out on pregnancy leave, and I had to go with someone who hadn't - they are assigned by region. But I went with this new one, and it turned out well in the end.
So, if you want a very personal experience, go with a smaller company, but in the end I did feel that they were very competent with the whole process, and the cost was worth it - I will never see any of the back-pay that's due to me, being that it is split between the lawyer and the private LTD company, but since it will never land in my hands, it's almost as if I am not paying anything for their representation. Please only go with an organization that promises to charge you only if they win your case. For all of the hours and time that I worked with them, the cost seems fair.
Good luck - I am not checking in often these days, but I will check in with you when I do come back.
Lily, I am just getting back to you.I am still at stage #1 working part-time as a manager, but they want me to go out on full-time disablity,but HR hasn't given me a date. They denied my short-term disability at one time, but reversed it once my MDs sent additional documentation.ility) .It has been 16 months of full-time work, then part-time when I got worse. My LTD carrier is Cigna and I have heard bad things about them. Thanks for the advice. I hope you are doing better.
Jim Lily said:
Hi James,
I will keep it short, I am not doing to well today. My private LTD carrier recommended Social Security Law Group, so I just went with them. There were smaller companies locally, but I chose to go with this national one. There are pluses and minuses to this. I had to get used to being handed from one specialist to the next through the course of my time with them, but this turned out to be a positive, as they specialize in just the one step in a long case, but I had to trust the process, and worried much about that when I was turned down at the first two levels. It also felt odd to work with a lawyer whom I had never seen, and whom I had only a few phone conversations with, at the very last stage prior to trial. She had, however, researched my case very thoroughly from all of the med records and notes, and she knew the judge at the trial. I had been initially told that I would be getting a lawyer who had won TN cases before, but it turned out that she was out on pregnancy leave, and I had to go with someone who hadn't - they are assigned by region. But I went with this new one, and it turned out well in the end.
So, if you want a very personal experience, go with a smaller company, but in the end I did feel that they were very competent with the whole process, and the cost was worth it - I will never see any of the back-pay that's due to me, being that it is split between the lawyer and the private LTD company, but since it will never land in my hands, it's almost as if I am not paying anything for their representation. Please only go with an organization that promises to charge you only if they win your case. For all of the hours and time that I worked with them, the cost seems fair.
Good luck - I am not checking in often these days, but I will check in with you when I do come back.
In that case, I would make your doctors your best allies - if they have your back, it is more difficult for the insurance companies to deny you. And although it may be taxing and vexxing, you can always sue the insurance provider if they deny you - they may be willling to chat with you once they get served papers. Since this condition is debilitating and very difficult to cure, or to treat, I'd say that you've got that as a pretty good argument.
My husband has been my rock with all this - he always thought of the ideas like that when my mind was too much in pain, or just too scared, to know how to move forward. So it's great to keep this discussion up.
Lily, I am glad to have you as a supportive TN partner. I have a few more questions for you since you've been through this process which I am sure was very exhausting for you. I have CIGNA as my LTD carrier and I still need to start the full-time short term disability in order to use up my benefits. My company still hasn't told me when I have to go on full-time disability. I have been working 4-5 hrs each day as a manager since Jan. "11, but the corporate ADA committee turned me down in April. You mention that your private LTD carrier referred you to a national law firm who worked you case successfully. Do you mind sharing the name of the firm? I know Dell LLC is one of the firms who advertise on the internet about winning a large class action case against CIGNA. I am still trying to get the attention of a local law firm to call me back on my wife SSDI case. SS denied my wife's benefits when she tried to go back to work part-time and she made too much money for 3 months. Any assistance you can provide will be greater appreciated. Thanks, Lily.
Jim
Lily said:
Dear James,
In that case, I would make your doctors your best allies - if they have your back, it is more difficult for the insurance companies to deny you. And although it may be taxing and vexxing, you can always sue the insurance provider if they deny you - they may be willling to chat with you once they get served papers. Since this condition is debilitating and very difficult to cure, or to treat, I'd say that you've got that as a pretty good argument.
My husband has been my rock with all this - he always thought of the ideas like that when my mind was too much in pain, or just too scared, to know how to move forward. So it's great to keep this discussion up.
Lily, thanks for the tips on LTD. Enjoy your summer. I will check in as I go through this process between short-term & LTD over the next 6-9 months. I hope you are feeling better.