MY ONGOING FIGHT WITH SOCIAL SECURITY OVER DISABILITY STATUS
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political Activist
In less than a month, my fate will most likely be sealed for me at an ALJ hearing that‘s been almost 2 years in the making.
The bone of contention is the SSA’s charge that I’ve been committing fraud against the administration for making up stories about problems that they don’t see in my file as existing.
But they do–leaving me with the frustrating feeling that this administration simply doesn’t care.
Either I will stay on disability as a result of this hearing, or lose everything I’ve spent my life accumulating.
Including my life.
It’s no joke, people.
I have a genetic blood disorder that causes my blood to clot spontaneously whether I’m injured or not. It’s called Factor Five Leiden.
With medical treatment, my chances of survival are excellent–so long as I keep my Coumadin dosages regular and I see an anti-coagulation specialist once or twice a month to do blood draws. (In some cases, it’s three times.)
My pro-time numbers tell the story. Tells me how thin or thick my blood is. That’s my safety net. Too high and I start to feel the effects in my body.
Too low?
And my body risks another lovely round of DVTs. (Another word for blood-clots.)
Without treatment? I die. Plain and simple. Senator Jennifer Dunn of Washington state died of a pulmonary embolism not too long ago–because a blood clot broke off inside her body and traveled up into her lungs and killed her.
That, or one to the heart, or to the brain, and its end game for this modest opinion writer. This is what doctors and specialists here are trying to prevent me from having.
My left leg is rife with old and new clots. And my right leg is an exact mirror composite of my left–in terms of underdeveloped circulatory pathways; an unnoticeable defect brought on by a condition which landed me into the unconscionable grasp of the state, the government, and lastly Social Security?–in the first place.
What was it?
Cerebral palsy.
Combined with asthma, underdeveloped lungs and with the frontal lobes in my brain burned out as a result–I’ve been unabashedly been the unwitting victim to years of battery, abuse, and endless fights with Social Security over my status as being classified disabled.
Because these idiots can’t see it.
Everything problematic is inside me–not outside. Nothing to tell the casual observer that: “Yes, we are dealing with someone whom is disabled.”
Sadly–in my case–it just isn’t so.
And this has led to numerous clashes with the SSA over just how disabled I am. And for the most part–I’ve found that I can give as well as get. I’ve often had to rely on my mother to do my battles for me, but in the years since she left, I’ve stepped in and started standing up for myself.
17 years ago, I was under the state’s care in a private schooling system. My development as a person and as an individual was still in its infancy–and I was without any sense of direction.
Until I left state care and moved to the West Coast.
That’s when things started to take off.
Yes, I was placed in an adult-care facility in the beginning, but later, I started working things out on my own. I instantly realized that I could function independently of the state–after my second job started–and often chuckled to myself when I got letters from the state telling me about my changes in case workers.
The last one I got was in 1996.
Since then, I didn’t hear from the state on a number of matters–except for the ones involving terminating me from my disability checks because I wasn’t doing this or doing that–with Social Security declaring on a number of occasions (over the last 6 years) that: “Since you don’t want to attend treatment, then after this certain date, we will consider you cured.”
Cured?
I dearly wish that were true. Then I can tell these uncaring sons of a bitches where to stick my next piddley-assed check from them.
Unfortunately, I can’t simply wish away my disabilities with a snap of the fingers, or with a blink of an eye. No matter how much improvement I’ve personally achieved with myself, I still am very much aware of the fact that I am disabled.
I still have problems that need tending to, issues which needs to be addressed, but I can’t very well do this with an administration that is content to playing “God” with my life.
Given my past history with the state, is it ever a wonder why I wanted to function independently of everyone else? Why I wanted a life of my own so badly?
Because from this disabled writer’s POV, it was a dream like no other. Past all the ones that I held so close my heart.
It was a chance to lead a somewhat normal life despite my disabilities.
And I took it. What pisses off Social Security is the fact that I’ve progressed much further than anyone else in my situation.
They can’t understand how someone with my disabilities is able to do what I’ve gone and accomplished strictly on my own accord. And why I haven’t stayed the same.
By no means am I using the system to simply gain pity or sympathy. What I am doing now is simply fighting the old misconceptions that the disabled aren’t able to contribute to society like everyone else.
I’ll find out June 30th how good I really am.
Wish me luck everyone.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.com
Labels: cerebral palsy, disability, Factor Five Leiden, fight, Social Security
posted by Schuyler Thorpe @ 10:01 PM
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