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Thanks for the useful suggestions, Abi, and the trial runs are alrrady set up (can't say I'm looking forward to messing around with my drugs, tho). This is my SECOND time before a SSA judge in order to be harassed to tears and pummeled emotionally (IF this particular judge is anything at all like the original one). So I have a good idea what to expect. Basically, I should NEVER have attempted to go back to work after being granted my SSDI and Medicare benefits, no matter HOW initially encouraging and cooperative Social Security was about it. And believe me, they're VERY encouraging and offer ya all kinds of monetary incentives to return to work. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of Abi Murthy Sent: Friday, August 28, 1998 1:33 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: Advice for Social Security hearings Barb- at the risk of sounding absolutely crass, and totally in-humane, maybe you should consider trial runs of taking the meds and not taking them and staging mock interviews with a friend and having that person tell you which they thought were worse.. IMHO, it does not seem to matter how rotten you feel (which is totally wrong, but that is another discussion altogether). but how the judge 'perceives' your PD and its impact on your 'earning-abilities' I'm not very good at hiding things from people who are very astute- so very early on, when I was in a spot of having to discuss our product with a possible customer, I did mock interviews with my boss, with my asking the questions and him answering. It was very illuminating.. how you could say something and still not say anything.. Again, this might be something you might want to practice.. Those of you who have been thru something similar might want to send Barb the questions they were asked and how they answered. A lot of times, in retrospect, people might think that they would have been answring it this way instead of the other.. And maybe Barb could collate these to help with the next person going thru this. I hope people don't get me wrong- but someone posted to the list a few months ago where someone answered the questionnaire herself and it turned out that this lady had no problems (except that she could not cook,bathe or do any of those things on her own anymore, but she was managing with help from friends and family). In my personal opinion, if you do really need help its ok to do stuff like this.. abi (Dad 73/4)