Disability Hearing

[sarahm]

Hi everyone. I went through my SS disibility hearing last week. I was incredibly nervous about it beforehand so I thought I'd give you all a summary so that anyone else who has to go through it can have some peace of mind. It really was not that bad and the worrying leading up to it was worse than the actual hearing.

Actually this was take two of my hearing, which is a bizarre story. But the take away from hearing number one was be prepared to wait, bring water, crackers, medication whatever you need because it might be a long wait. Also make sure your medication is in the prescription bottle, there is security and they ended up calling the police because my pills were in a pill box not the prescription bottle. That was a bit of extra stress I could have done without.

So for the second hearing... I had a lawyer, who was hired on my behalf by the disability insurance I had through my last employer. They took care of all the paperwork leading up to the hearing. And we had a phone prep a couple days before the hearing to go over what to expect and practice a few questions. The hearing is in a room that is more like a conference room than a courtroom. There was me, my lawyer, the judge, a recorder, and a occupational expert. The judge does a brief intro about the case and swears you in. Then my lawyer was asked to give a statement. She clarified some troubles with my paperwork, and then gave a brief summery of my illness. That all takes about 10 minutes. Then the judge starts asking you questions, but its more like a conversation with the judge than anything else. He started with my work history, asking about school, what I studied, and went through each of my jobs and asked what I did and why I left for each. Then he asked me about how my illness started and I explained (I had a very abrupt onset). From there he just asked for more details and follow up questions about my treatment, my life, what I do, how I do it, how long I can do each activity. He was very friendly and it was really like explaining my illness to a friend. It was actually kind of nice because he has to listen to your story and seems to genuinely want to understand what you are going through. The questioning was very natural. For example, he asked what I do on a daily basis and in my answer I mentioned that I volunteer outside the house once a week. He followed up with that by asking me where I volunteered, what I did, how long I stayed. And it was like that for pretty much everything, my exercise routine, my doctors appointments, my medication, the help I've hired around the house. When he is done with the questions my lawyer has an opportunity to ask me follow up questions. So she asked me questions that would clarify things or bring out aspect of my illness that the judge didn't get to hear. For example, the judge didn't ask about the brain fog so she brought that up and asked me to describe it. Then my part was over, all that took about 30 - 45 minutes. Next the judge questions the occupational expert, and you are not supposed to interupt during this part. There is a lot of legal jargon in this part so I didn't follow everything. But basically the judge described my previous job and asks the occupational expert if I could perform that job. He said no, and he offered a few alternative jobs he thought I might be able to do. Then the judge comes up with a senario that more or less describes my current capacity. It was something like imagine a person who can sit for three hours, then needs to lay down for 20 minutes is there a job for such a person. In this case the occupational expert was a bit wishy washy, and there was some discussion about the reasonable amount of breaks on a normal job and wether or not there would be a place to lay down. I think the judge did two different senarios. Then my lawyer was given a chance to ask the occupational expert questions, and she tried to clarify some of the wishy washy stuff. And that was it. The whole thing was about an hour.

I was very nervous at the start and stressed the days leading up to it. But after about 10 minutes chatting with the judge I relaxed and just told my story. My lawyer also said that if I needed a break I was free to ask at any time, but I was ok and didn't have any issues. It will take a couple months before I find out the decision, so don't really know how it went. The judge doesn't give any indication what he is thinking. But the important thing is it's not as bad as it sounds, the judges are there to try and understand your illness so they can make an informed decision. Frankly he listened better and asked better questions than most of the doctors I've seen.

[corina]

Thanks for sharing Sarah! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[Raisin]

Thanks Sarah. I'm sure this will help others who are anxious about applying for disability or hearings.

[edriscoll]

Thanks for sharing your experience Sarah. Good luck with your case. I can relate to the extreme stress of the whole SS application process. I was turned down when I first applied. At that point there was no firm diagnosis of the Dysautonomia, only the very long list of symptoms of the illness.

When the time came around for my hearing I was blessed by a Neurologist who prepared my chart with a detailed list of every single symptom and explanations of the debilitating nature of each. I also have been doubly blessed by my PCP who wrote a very detailed letter to the judge explaining how all of the symptoms that I have leave me unable to work and about how hard I tried to continue and for how long before finally being forced to leave my position.

The night before the hearing was scheduled to begin, I got a call from my lawyer saying that the judge's office had just contacted him to call off the hearing. He said the judge read the letter from my doctor and the neurologist's records and said there was no reason for me to come in - I was approved! He also said that he had never heard of this illness and was so grateful that my doctors were so detailed in their explanations. He said without that it would have been difficult for him to understand what I was going through.

I think it is important for doctors to understand how much we need them to advocate for us in these situations. So few of the medical community understand this illness - ****, few have even heard of it - so it is really important that our doctors help us get the information out from an authoritative source. I also think we have to take responsibility and ask our doctors to occasionally go the extra step for us when possible. I am very thankful that my doctors were so willing to do whatever they could for me.

I wish you the best of luck Sarah. Let us know how you make out.

[sarahm]

edriscoll, You are very lucky to have the support of your doctors. And I agree its really important, but unfortunately rare to find doctors that are willing to make an extra effort. My doctors were unfortunately not coorprative and I had paperwork that did not get completed as a result. My specialist is Dr. Grubb who has a policy that they will not fill out any disibility forms. I think this is a terrible and tragic policy as he is one of the few doctors in the country that truly understands POTS. I travel half way across the country to see him because I can't find anyone else closer, so the fact that he sends the paperwork back saying give it to your PCP just makes no sense.