Fighting the Disability Battle

While many other people have negative stories about filing for disability (SSDI), I'm here to share a success story. What do I call success? Getting approved the first time.

I've likely been a migraineur since childhood, we just didn't know what it was back then. The first time I can point to a specific incident and say "that was a migraine" is about 30 years ago. A lot of that 30 years I was a single mom, so I had to keep a roof over my children's heads & food on the table. But now the children are grown and gone, and most have children of their own. About a year ago my body decided "we just aren't doing this anymore," meaning the migraines went from chronic intermittent to chronic daily, and they primarily affect my vision and balance.

As a nurse, I'm used to documenting, and the phrase is: If it isn't documented, it never happened. I had tracked my symptoms in the past for a few days or weeks, but now I started doing it Every Single Day! When I finally reached the end of my career, when my body simply refused to go any further, I had nearly a full year of daily documentation of how the migraines affected me and my ability to live life, and my attorney was impressed. He also said that we may get through it on the first try.

The end result: not only was I approved on the first attempt, but I did not even have to see their doctor - and that last point pretty much blew me away! I was approved so fast that I won't get any back pay, and have to wait a little longer before my benefits will start.

So document, document, DOCUMENT!!! I absolutely hate tracking my symptoms, because it doesn't let me ignore them, but it was so incredibly worth it.