Those of you who know me are aware that I have chronic illnesses. These include allergies that are so severe that I need to carry an Eli-Pen, an inhaler, and take a bunch of medication every day. I’ve also got borderline anemia, and signs indicate that I have the rheumatoid arthritis that runs in my family. (I still need to be tested for that.)
As such, I have applied for Social Security Disability benefits. To be honest, I didn’t want to. A few close friends, who know how truly ill I am, talked me into it.
To apply, you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork, have your doctors fill out more paperwork, and then got get examined by a doctor that the Social Security Disability powers-that-be select. I’ve done all those things.
Today, I got a letter from them stating that they have denied my claim. In short, I was told that I should “avoid dust”. I guess they stuck their fingers in their ears and closed their eyes when I got to the part about the food allergies that can kill me. The borderline anemia apparently doesn’t count because I haven’t been hospitalized for blood transfusions.
So, according to them, I am not disabled. That means it must be common for people to carry around Epi-Pens, inhalers, and a bag full of allergy medications, everywhere they go, just in case they encounter an allergen and have a bad reaction.
Everybody else is fighting fatigue due to anemia, and trying not to faint (especially during certain times of the month). That must be normal, right? All of you reading this start your day by checking the pollen count, assessing symptoms, and taking whatever drugs are needed – before you can even think about taking a shower, right?
Obviously, the nasty little minion at the Social Security Disability department is flat out wrong. His or her job is to make sure that more claims are denied than accepted. I know several people who have applied for these benefits, and all of them – ALL of them – got their claims denied. You have to fight them by filling out an appeal if you want to actually get the help you deserve.
So, I will be appealing that decision. I might not be able to get someone there to listen to reason. I’ve got nothing to lose by fighting with them, though. They could have done the right thing. Instead, I will be taking up the most precious thing any human has – their time.
Disability Denied is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.
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