Is Social Security Disability in your future?

This is something I had not considered at the start of my NA/HNA journey, but after the three attorneys I consulted during my recent Worker’s Comp process were surprised I had not already applied, I thought it worth mentioning.

One thing that you should know is that the social security folks seem to need to know that more than one limb is impacted for them to agree you are disabled by anything. That and you have to demonstrate that this impacts your ability to perform basic tasks that might be associated with paying work or just everyday living. To show this, it is important to document everything that has happened to you so you can demonstrate how this impacts your everyday life. Documentation is the key in this. My documentation amounted to a good inch thick stack of paper reports and doctor notes that go back almost ten years. They also have a list of all of the doctors I have seen and when I saw them. Social Security is free to contact the doctors you provide information for, so it is possible that their complete list of documentation exceeds what I have at this point.

That documentation should refer to impacts you have on more than one limb. The right arm by itself is not enough. The right leg alone is not enough. But if you can show that both arms are impacted or that you also have leg involvement, you will have better chances of your claim not being rejected out of hand. If a doctor anywhere in your past ever made note of a different limb being involved, make sure you have a copy of that in your file. In my case, the original mention of my other arm being involved was important, even though the conclusions this doctor came to ended up being incorrect. In my case, there was another doctor who mentioned that involvement later, so I have two independent doctor notes about other limb involvement. What made this difficult for me was the Workman’s Comp system. My claim only mentioned my right arm. When I brought up the potential that my left arm was involved, they said they could not look at it unless I filed a claim for it. At that point, I was tired of the system and it was only a minor issue to me, I decided not to file a new claim. But it was important enough that two other doctors made note of it. Do not discount those fleeting mentioned items. They could be the difference in being denied or not.