What's up here....

Today I had to get my annual doctor's form certifying that I'm still disabled.

The doctor's scale concurs with mine that I have lost 10 pounds in the past year.  :) Typically, when I start losing weight, it's a sign that I'm going into remission.  Fingers crossed; I feel better than I did when I was sleeping only 2 hours a night, but I haven't noticed any major improvement in my health over the past year (in fact, I've just in the last couple weeks once again made myself sicker by pushing the limit on the hours I can work).  But, this may be the first herald of spring, and the improvement in health will follow the start of the weight loss.

Since they have a habit of intentionally misinterpreting answers (e.g., when a prior doctor stated that my "current" condition was effective on the date of the appointment, meaning that my condition had changed since the prior appointment, they concluded that the doctor meant that I had not been disabled prior to the current appointment), my doctor pointed out to me that we should make clear to them that his accurate answer that he did not tell me to stop working full-time did not mean that he did not think that I was disabled, but that I had already lost my job by the time I saw him, so there was no need for him to tell me to stop what I was no longer doing.

For those readers who are dealing with disability issues, you may want to include a cover letter (indicating a copy to your state Department of Insurance) clarifying such statements before they're held against you.  If the doctor says your condition has changed, make sure that you explain to them that where it says "current" on their forms, your doctor took that to mean "current", and was not commenting on your past condition, he's not saying that you weren't disabled before, just that your current condition is not identical to what it was last year.  If you've changed doctors after losing your job, make sure to point out that there is a reason this doctor did not tell you to stop working, and that reason is not that the doctor thinks you can still work.

Unlike most legal systems in the US, where you are "innocent until proven guilty", in the disability system you are considered guilty of attempting to defraud the system until you've proven yourself innocent.  The system is stacked against you, and making sure that what a doctor says cannot be taken in any way other than the way he meant it can only help you.

Remember, I gave orthopedic reasons for why I could not do certain things, and the clause "because of locked shoulder" was excised to make it sound that I didn't get dressed because I was too depressed to care, rather than the truth, that because of the frozen shoulder (a known CFS symptom), I had to perform painful contortions to get into a shirt and it just wasn't worth torturing myself twice a day and enduring hours of pain as a result, if it was not mandatory that I change out of my jammies -- their goal is to say whatever they can say to make it appear that you're either faking or have psychological problems and to minimize the physical problems, so that they don't have to pay you benefits.