Hi Loupivy
I got disability and I agree with Jane you need to apply asap as they will date payment from when you apply.
You need to contact the relevant people. There is an Act of parliament that governs it here and it would be the same where you are in the States, you can look it up and it will be of some help to you. Ours is called the Social Security Act. The main criteria I had to meet were an inability to work for 15 or more hours a week, for at least two years.
I was given misleading information by the centrelink officers I spoke to on several occsions when putting together my initial application. They told me that if I could get information about my disease and its prognosis that would support my case, but as it turned out, it is only the doctors' word they go on. At first my docs were reluctant to say I would be sick for a munimum of two years, the minimum we have to be illl to get it, so my first application failed, but there is an appeal process. I started on that process, deliberately taking the maxiumum amount of time for each step, so that if worse came to worse, I could show that it was a fait accompli that I had been sick for two years. Luckily one of my docs agreed during that process to fill in a form saying he thought I would be sick for that amount of time, as it was obvious I wasn't making a lot of headway. I then had to be reassessed by the person who assessed me in the first instance and it was easy to prove the second time around.
I told them things like I had difficulty concentrating (documented side effect of meds), I get excessively tired after working a few hours (symptom of autoimmune disease), I took along my nightie, which is stained with blood every day, to prove how much I scratch at night and how that interferes with my sleep, I told them my clothes stick to me and blood seeps through them. I showed them the lesions on my stomach, but you could take photos along which is more appropriate I think. I have to have regular blood tests and trips to the doc (who is in another city, but I have to go to see her due to the rarity of my disease) which interfere with my ability to work, a list of the side effects of the meds I take, statements from the doc about the difficulty of getting the meds right and the number of hospitalisations I had had in the course of the time I had been sick.
The fact that noone has heard of the disease makes it more difficult, but you can take info printed off the net so they can at least learn a bit about it. They also took into account that I had worked while bringing up my kids on my own when I could have been on the single parent pension. I am motivated to work and that came across in the interview as I am sure it will for you too. I continued to study last semester which also helped my case, but my grades dropped and I often missed clases due to my illness. This also strengthened my case.
If you want more info, loupivy, I can easily look up my files .... let me know how you go. I know from our chat this morning you should get it...
LG
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