[Sca-cooks] OT collecting disability

[Laura C. Minnick]

Well, in my case, my health grew progressively worse over several years. I 
put off applying for SSI until my doctors _insisted_. Then it took... two 
and a half years, and I think it was three appeals. Ended up getting a 
lawyer and going the hearings route. Went through that time, but the 
hearings judge was _really_ rude to me, and my lawyer said she'd never seen 
a judge behave like that (he even took a shot at my relationship with 
James- my lawyer had her hand on my arm, because she didn't like the look 
on my face at that). But the testifying doctors said the magic words 'meets 
the criteria'. The judge took one last shot though, and remanded me for a 
two-year follow-up, _and_ he decided (based on what, we don't know) that I 
could not manage my own affairs and that I had to have a representative 
payee. It was humiliating.

What he was ticked off at, we don't know. The only thing we could come up 
with was that he seemed to be especially pi$$ed off that I had given a few 
hours volunteer time to the Kerry campaign (until I picked up strep from 
someone in the office and sat the rest of the season out on large doses of 
interesting antibiotics).

The upshot it that I have $600/month to live on, and state medical care- 
which is a lot, as my Rx bills run OHP between $400-500/month. I'm glad for 
what I'm getting, but I'd much rather be well.

'Lainie
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Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something 
else is more important than fear.   --Ambrose Redmoon