[Absolutely Nobama]

Ping!

[CornBred]

Listen to your wife. Be her hero.

There is no shame in disability. You aren’t taking away from anyone.

[blueplum]

think of all the people you’ve supported by your working and paying taxes over these many years

there is a time for everything in life - including a time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your lifetime of labor

and going out on disability doesn’t have to be an endpoint - you can always refuse disability payments after you make a mil or so from writing a book or starting up that hobby-business you always wanted to

[philman_36]

I bet that deep down inside you're Bad American.

I like big trucks, big boats, big houses, and naturally, pretty women. I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family; not some mid-level, government flunky with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.

[iowamark]

Hang in there! Sitting around home in a wheelchair is not heaven on earth either. You are better off staying as active as you can for as long as you can.

[Judith Anne]

If I were you, I’d file for disability right now. You and your wife deserve some time together, and the future is uncertain, if you are teetering “on the edge of disaster” as you say. You may or may not be aware that, even if you qualify the first time you are examined by the government doctors (and you may not qualify, no matter how sick you actually are) there is still a six months wait before beginning benefits.

I’m not saying give up and go on the dole. But please, listen to your wife out of love and respect for her...she must be worried about you.

And—God bless you, FRiend. We are in His loving hands, no matter what.

[Norm Lenhart]

File and get ready to fight like hell.

I have chrons disease and am missing a big chunk of intestine due to multiple resections. I was given megadoses of steroids in my youth and I knew I’d have to pay the piper eventually but had to do what had to be done.

I was on Disability for a couple years and then went into remission. I spent the next 15 years working like a dog and missed only a handful of days due to the occasional flare-up. Well, the piper stopped by a little over a year ago and demanded his due. Complications from those surgeries (absorbtion issues, adhesion/intestinal stricturing are setting in as is the results of the steroids - joint degeneration and other forms of joy.

Not happy about not being able to work since every other day I’m in bed and even when I’m not, it ain’t pretty.

Shame? Yup. feel it every day. But what can you do. It happens. Not like I chose to be born with mine, nor did you, yours. As a result I have had to get a SSD lawyer, AGAIN, and I guarantee you will as well. They deny everyone in round 1 and the appeal. lawyer from my first go-around told me that. And so I fight again.

For those who claim that people on disability are somehow leeching off the system,; A: we payed into that system and B: Spend time with someone truly disabled and see what fun our ‘free ride’ really is.

[muawiyah]

So, why disability?

The answer is simple ~ it's called BLINDNESS. Once that happens you have less choice than no choice at all. Since the most ancient of times we've given the blind guy a preferential spot at the city gate where he can beg.

Do you realize what that will cost?

They don't make all that many city gates you know, but you'll be getting some working beggar's spot and he has two wives and 7 chilluns.

Plus, it sounds like you need some time to learn how to get your blood sugar back in line. If this is simple TYPE I your solution is in a bottle. If it's more complex, between Type I and Type II, part of it's in a bottle, and part of it is in walking and part of it is in other lifestyle choices!

It is advantageous to the public purse for you to get control of things and avoid blindness!

That's precisely why the gub'mnt puts so much money into preventing blindness ~ of all the problems you can have that's the one that's the most costly to everybody else.

[CH3CN]

I understand where you are, 100%. I’m still working with a bad case of spondylolathesis, with the L5 causing lots of pressure on both the cauda equina and the sciatic nerves. Besides pain, the nerves cause other, embarassing problems. However, I can’t take disabiity. Spouse is unemployed and my job has the health insurance. Disability health care won’t cover the spouse, so I’ll work until I die. That’s just the way it is.

[mnehring]

There is always something you can contribute. As long as you have your mind, you can produce something that someone may find value in. You have a unique experience, write about it. Talk to your doctor about possibly leading groups of people going through the same thing. Educate people on diabetes. There is always opportunity if you look for it.

"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me...- Ayn Rand.

[Logic n' Reason]

Cheers mate! Thanks for being among us.

And I've the feeling you're going to be around to see the recovery of the country you love so much.

Hang in...be careful....

Cheers again.

[rightly_dividing]

If you can get the disability, take it and don't look back. You seserve it and have paid in to it. SS and Medicare are big portions of the budget, but cuts in spending can come from elsewhere, like foreign aid and federal subsidies. Many young FReepers come on these threads demanding that self-centered old people give up their SS so that they themselves can have it later. How self centered is that? Handicapped people and old folks can not support themselves no more than a baby can. Some older people like Jon McLame have much income and can do without SS benefits, but most have only SS for income and would lose their homes, medical care, and starve to death in the streets.

Remember, the money was stolen from SS to use for other things, they(the government) owe the SS fund. Let them cut other gov programs to repay what they owe to SS. After doing that, then they should gradually do away with the current program and develop a better savings/investment plan for the people that are now the younger workers.