The ICI Experience:

I blogged about my Social Security Disability case back in November. As that post is now in my top ten most popular, and I am still waiting for the answer to my appeal to the Hearing Decision, I thought I would run these little tidbits.  The first is from a group called the Social Security Disability Coalition: "It is very important to tell all the media outlets you can (newspapers, TV, radio) about your problems with the Social Security Disability process, the Social Security Disability Reform Petition, The Fullerton - Edwards Social Security Disability Reform Act, and the Social Security Disability Coalition.  This way they will see how widespread these problems are and that you are not the only one going through this.  Also keep in mind that under Social Security Policy DI 23020.005 - One of the criteria for Critical Cases are those with adverse public relations potential.  When the SSA becomes aware of a critical case situation, it is s...

4/2/2016 Update:  The ALJ Disposition Data Spreadsheet has gone the way of lots of software that was state of the art; it doesn't work anymore.  You can see the statistics and comparisons on the post dated 2/26/2011 and titled The Social Security Administration does not like negative publicity . 12/17/13:  Updated all links.  Dot & her Fibro Mom's blog has been gone for years now.  They have a Facebook page but nothing has been posted there since 2011.  I hope they are doing so much better that they don't have time for blogging about illness!   2/29/12 Update:  The Fibro World Blog seems to be offline for now.  I'm leaving the links in the hope that they will be back.  That was really a great blog and I hope Fibro Dot and her Fibro Mom are OK.  I never got around to doing all of the Georgia lawyers like I said I was going to in this post.  Oh well.    I've decided to blog about my Social Security Disabil...

Some of the more recent history of human rights - From Wikipedia on Human Rights: The history of human rights covers thousands of years and draws upon religious, cultural, philosophical and legal developments throughout recorded history. We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights , that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . United States Declaration of Independence ~Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, as authorized by the Continental Congress, July 2, 1776 with minor revisions and released publicly on July 4, 1776. “ ...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ” —Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 The term inalienable rights refers to a theoretical set of individual human ...

Speak no evil , originally uploaded by starshine_diva . This is the best article I've seen yet on invisible disabilities. It's titled " 'But You Look So Good!' and 7 Other Things NOT to Say to a Person With a Non-Visible Disability " and it's from " DiversityInc Magazine: Diversity and the Bottom Line" . Imagine that. Something good from the bowels of corporate America. Forgive my attitude. It'll probably get better a few more years down the road from my experience with that government job where they threw me away because I had one disability too many. Government, corporate, they're all the same, right? OK, back to the good-- The kicker is the last section. It took me a minute to get it, what the 5 second difference meant, and it's so true . Here's the last section: This Means You If you think this won't be a concern until old age, take note: 75 percent of people with chronic conditions are younger than 65. One...

S/he is from Canada but it sounds pretty right on for the U.S. too. sick , originally uploaded by jungmoon . From Dominie Bush's 8/4/07 newsletter--Item #5 : FMS/CFIDS SUFFERER IS CARETAKER, Daughter & Mother "Just quickly perusing your latest compilation (fantastic FM/CFS newsletter!!!!!) and as I read am struck by two things. 1) how many people with FM and CFS are prescribed a plethora of drugs to control or supposedly "cure" symptoms and 2) being desperately ill and socially ostracized we who have FM and CFS are almost every time I read about treatment, told that another medication can make the difference or is the missing magic bullet to cure us. Dominie, I have had this illness definitively diagnosed in 1996 but had it for at least ten years before that so for over 20 years I have had it and have tried everything that I have come across to try to get better - all kinds of drugs, eating programs, sleeping aids, exercises, rest, relocations, etc. and a...

Went to the local DFCS office to apply for food stamps and medicare again. Bad enough having to do this, but now I know everyone in the office since I used to work there and it's exponentially embarassing. I told the lady who was doing my intake that, and said I just felt like crying. And then I did cry. I'm sure menopause isn't helping with the situation. I cried last night about the season finales to Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. But I laughed too. That was good. The welfare office was not good. I have to go back tomorrow to talk to the actual case worker. I also talked to three different social security offices today RE: SSDI app. What a mess. I'll have to write about that later, if I feel like it.

This is a history of my blog/journal attempts prior to this one. I started out at http://sherrillynn.greatestjournal.com/, as a record of the process I was going through in applying for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) in 2004. Then I was able to start working and the journal laid unused for a couple of years. I worked part time in 2004-2005, then got a full time job in July of 2005. This summer of 2006 I was terminated from the full time job which I really liked, because I was sick with invisible (or concealed) chronic illnesses. Then I decided my blog should be a record of the claim I was filing on the discrimination of my employer on the basis of my disability. Then I (quite wisely) decided it probably wasn't too good to be posting stuff about my discrimination claim against my former employer, while the investigation was going on. Now the blog is about what happened, what's happening, and how I deal with it. I'm trying to channel my feelings into som...