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Kathryn, et al... I can only speak from my own experience with PD and the Social Security Administration. I've long since accepted my having the disease but am not totally resigned to accepting what it's doing to my body. Nowadays I tend to tackle one symptom at a time rather than fighting the entire disease as I used to do. I've found that when I've been engaged in mortal combat with the Social Security Administration that as the years pass - one year, two years, three years with their endless redundant paperwork... I have little energy or desire to fight anything that PD dumps on me. Social Security EXPECTS us to be helpless when we finally stop working and file a claim to receive SSDI benefits. Not partially helpless, not mostly helpless, but TOTALLY helpless. It seems to me that the SSA has two classifications to define an individual's physical condition - well enough to function or totally, helplessly sick. This is a case of everything being seen in black and white, when MOST folks linger in a shades-of-gray state the majority of the time. WE can accept our being forced to live with a chronic degenerative neurological disease far easier than the Social Security Administration can. I don't know if this is because we expect the SSA to give us some money when we become ill enough to stop working and THEY only have so much to give, but that's what I suspect is the problem. THEY are trying to conserve, to PROTECT funds against the needs of the clamouring masses and WE need, even DEMAND, those funds as our birthright. This is inherently a "You lose, I win" situation, yet the very construction of a viable Social Security Administration as designed, is to provide money which originated from those very same individuals the SSA fights the moment they have a legitimate reason to ask for that money. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] -Original Message----- From: Kathryn Saupp <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Monday, June 07, 1999 7:52 AM Subject: Re: social security disability >In retrospect -- do you think it's worth trying for employment and risk >getting knocked off benefits? I find a thin and disturbing line between >learning helplessness and accepting this illness. > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Barb_MSN <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Monday, June 07, 1999 12:16 AM >Subject: Re: social security disability > > >>Don.... >> >>I've gone thru the SSDI experience not only once, but TWICE, >>having gone back to full time employment after being on SSDI for 3 >>or 4 years. >> >>I got a job 7 day-a-week-job averaging 14 or 15 hours a day job >>the online industry, working right outta my home. It was >>grueling and when, 2 years after I'd begun working, I parted >>company with my employer, Microsoft, I found that the good folks >>at Social Security had screwed up royally by noting in my file >>that I had been "CURED" of the Parkinson's I'd had for 22 years >>(have had PD for almost 25 years now). Thus I no longer had my >>"disabled" status and lost SSDI and Medicare benefits which had >>taken me three full years to get the first go 'round. >> >>It took me another two years to FINALLY reestablish my SSDI status >>and in both cases required the assistance of a SSDI attorney it >>cut thru the red tape. >> >>I STRONGLY urge you wife to start the ball rolling ASAP with >>regards to qualifying for SSDI and Medicare benefits, and to not >>let that entity get her down (and believe me, they are past master >>in the art of making the SSDI applicant go 'round the bend from >>sheer frustration! >> >>Good luck, and please keep us posted on how your wife's doing. >> >>Barb Mallut >>[log in to unmask] >>-----Original Message----- >>From: DonaldR.Smith <[log in to unmask]> >>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> >>Date: Sunday, June 06, 1999 6:21 PM >>Subject: social security disability >> >> >>>My wife has had Parkinson's for quite awhile now and is having a >>real hard >>>time at work. >>>Anyone out there that has gone through the process to obtain >>Social Security >>>Disability? >>> >>>Thanks, >>> >>>Have a great day............................................... >>>Email: [log in to unmask] >>>Home Page: http://home.att.net/~ward-1 >>> >