Brian Therrien:  Member Conference - June, 2008 Transcript Introduction of members.
 
Brian: Here is what I want to go over today. I want to give you an update on what’s going on with some new information, I have an  agenda but I want to also spend the time going over questions that you might have. We do have quite a bit of information to go over with you. If you are just joining us, you can follow along with the visual part of the program there on my computer. I will be going over the email that was sent to you and in that email there was a registration link so that you can actually see my computer here in Vermont and you can follow along with what I am going to show you. What we’re going to cover is all topics related to Disability, how to file for Disability, speeding up the process, making sure your check’s right, jobs and income, keeping your benefits, affordable housing, grants, treatment options, and how you can meet and greet and connect with others. These are some of the things that we’re going to chat about today.
 
First of all what I’d like to do is go over what’s new.
For those of you who are just joining us or you’re new or you haven’t been around for awhile to the Disability Digest, I want to go over what’s new, show you around and show you the other services that we offer. I encourage you to check out and bookmark our members area. You’re looking at the Members Area right now on your screen and you can find out by going to thedisabilitydigest.com and in the top right hand corner click on the Members Area.

Most of the emails sent to you have a link back to the Members Area. So if you look at your screen there is a video tour of all of the services that we provide and some resources in the Members Area. I’m just going to scroll down and touch on some of the things that are new. Here are some of the blue links that you can click on and check them out. Some of the things that are new and you can find a place where you can get reliable updated information. It’s a company called Dis-a-Boom where they have various categories of information and they are very careful from where they select it from. So you can come into our Members Area and if you want you can get the latest information on what your health challenges are this would be a great place to find it.


Some of the other things that are new. We are always updating the success stories from members that have gone through and used our services that have been able to find jobs, housing, and have won their Disability benefits. I don’t know what it is this week but it must be the week for cynics. There have been some who have said, “Who makes you an authority on Disability?” and my response is that I am a researcher and I interview people who know a lot about the topic and they share new strategies that they have used. So I always send people back to this page so that they can read on the success stories. It seems to shut them up. So for those who wonder if the real deal is going on, they can read some of those great stories. So those are some of the new things that we have.


I want to talk about not necessarily new information but I want to talk about for those who are applying for Disability and going through the process some of the things that I’ve learned in the last sixty days by going out and actually interviewing Disability folks. How many people on the line are going out or thinking about applying for Disability that have been actually not been approved yet?
“I’m waiting for my hearing date.”
 
Brian: Okay good, good. “Hello. It’s Bob from Minneapolis.” Brian: “Hello Bob.” “Elby from Clearwater” . Brian: You know, a couple of things actually, For the person that’s waiting for their hearing, I just put out a Blog post yesterday that you’re looking at on your screen the many things that you must know and do, it’s like they don’t know to ask about for their hearing. I would certainly take that in. I’ve collected the tools that are used with Disability representatives that would join us.

If you’re new to the blogging world and don’t know how a blog works. If you look at the top right hand corner, there’s the orange button there and you can subscribe to it. And the reason why we have a blog is that I don’t want to bombard people with all kinds of information that they will find in their email box and we always have more information from different topics and we have been consistently asked for information to help people prepare for hearings.

So that’s one place that you can learn about it.
And in those tips you can actually find a video in there that will show you what goes down in the hearing room. The judge will be there and a vocational advisor and also they’re going to cross question you and you can be prepared for that.
 
 
Just great tips and for everybody that is applying for Disability. And typically they’re misled and that they that their medical history is going to be the end all, end all. But a lot of what wins these cases is that is your credibility, your work history. For example, if you’ve worked twenty years at a job and you stopped and applied for Disability. The judge is going to look at that and say, “You know what? This person has historically wanted to work.” And so that’s important in that post.


One thing that I forgot to mention is if you expect to have background noise today, you know the barking dogs and the construction workers we have had in the past, if you can just hit * six on your phone that will block out that background noise on your phone. If you want to ask a question along the way, you can just hit *six again, actually *seven to un-mute and you can come back in. So there’s a tip for the person who is applying.
 
So I want to talk about some of the companies I’ve visited that are representative firms.
I don’t know how many people are aware that we actually do this but people that have registered on our site that got called. They get a call from one of our members. Especially those who are going through Disability because it’s so cumbersome.

They can walk you through the options that we have and how the mini-course works. And in most cases we’ll review where you are in the application process.
 
We’ll suggest a strategy for you and offer you some info on the strategy and the strategy goes like this. You can go through the application process on your own and statistically you can win it on your own if you do it right. And the mini-course teaches you how to do this.

The second key thing is to interview a representative about your Disability case and interview one we know have met, other members have used, and we understand their win percentage and the reason for that is really two-fold. 

You want to understand the option as it is an option that Social Security will use and you can use a representative from the very beginning. One of the reasons for using a representative is that they will take your case and it will benchmark your case to let you know where you’re at. For example, we have some representatives that win 90% of their overall cases in a month. They’ll look at your case and say, ”You know what? I’ll be interested in helping you win that”. So now you know you’ve got a crack at it anyway. 

So we always encourage people to do that and go through that experience. And then they can go back and they can use the mini-course and the tools and have done it to apply or if they’re going to go through and use representation. 

Here’s my point about representatives: In today’s environment and what I have learned, I’ve touched on this before but it’s so very important for people going through the approval process to understand this. Here’s where the challenges lie in Disability: Getting denied. Duh!
 
You don’t want to do that! Nobody does but if you’re applying and you send in your application, it usually takes five to seven months to hear back. And about three percent of those are approved. And those are slam-dunk applications as they may be in a coma or there’s really something tough in there. 

Beyond that most people, no actually no, I’m sorry. It is out of 70% of those that have applied are denied and the 3% meet a listing of criteria. So I was wrong in those statistics. 70% are denied. So what you want to do is to avoid that and the reason you want to avoid that very big step is that there is a delay in the system.

Once you get denied, you have sixty days to file an appeal. “This is a wrong decision Social Security. I cannot work.” So then what happens is that your application is reviewed and you have to get a hearing date to get before a judge. That’s where the bottleneck is. And the bottleneck is for example, in Georgia, it’s three years from the time that you have been denied within that first seven or eight months to get in front of a judge. So you’re looking at three years and eight months in Georgia for example to just get in front of a judge to get approved. So here’s the difference and I always tell people this, go ahead and do some work up front even if you are still working.

There are posts on the Blog and I interviewed representatives about what people should do if they are still working. Keep a page journal. You know there’s a great interview with Jonathan Ginsburg for what to do if you’re still working and all of those things because you want to build your case during the time you are starting to fail in a working environment all of the way from the time that you failed. So that’s certainly what you want to do.
 
When it comes to applying with one of these full Disability firms, the treating position is this: Getting all of the paperwork in correctly, especially in the beginning. The paperwork is your case. You really don’t get a chance to plead your case verbally to anybody that is going to get to be making a decision. So if you do a phone intake, all they are doing is writing down that information. They put it on with pen and paper. It is sent in and then it is judged. So, it’s all in the paperwork and the communication. The full service firms, what they do is done differently than a small town America firm.

Small town America firm, say you call ten. They do about thirty cases a month and you’re just applying, they’ll say “Listen. Go file. Get denied. Then come back and see me.” Has this happened to anyone?
 
You know why they want to do that? Because they want to build up those benefits so that they can go in there and file, clean up, and get that 350-400 dollars. That annoys me. Then the strategy with full service firms is this: They want to massage and handle the case from the very beginning. And then there are people who have only been out of work for a couple of days that can have a good case. So then they will send you eight to ten forms to fifteen forms that you will need to go through, approve, and authorize. The rest of the application for Disability is 100 something forms. They are going to do it. They’ll fill it all out, fill in what needs to be put in there, put the paperwork in and then they’ll send it all in.
 

Then here is where it gets interesting: If it gets denied at that first round, and they’ll guarantee that it will get approved. But if it gets denied, then they quickly take action and ask for an honored decision.
This means that they want to have it approved before it actually gets in front of the judge. That’s where that long delay is. Get this is premium depth as this can save you months and thousands of dollars. Okay? So these firms that are taking these cases in the very beginning, there are three of them that we have in our network right now that are all winning about 70% of these before they get to a hearing. Which the average time for getting them through the system is eighteen months versus the example I used in Georgia. So here’s the key, and the key is this: if you don’t feel comfortable doing the paperwork on your own and you don’t want to invest the tine to do it, and you really want to win this thing quick, then use this as a consideration.

Otherwise, use the course, use the guides, use all of the knowledge that’s in there. And do the paperwork the best that you can so that it’s right because that’s statistically showing us that eighteen months getting through the system is great for a Disability representative that’s doing this cause yet they don’t make as much money on your back benefits cause usually they make about 3800.00 up to 5300.00 in back benefit awards. 

But the value is they don’t have to go to hearing. They don’t have to put somebody on a plane or take a day out of the office. And you know they can do it that way and for you is you get your money quicker. This is a very promising trend for members. And I was just into court the other day meeting a firm and their members and next week in Boston I’ll be interviewing another one of these.
 
What we try to do here is make it a better solution for you from opening a phone book or doing a Google Search to try to help you to find somebody to help you win your case. At least give you somebody you can talk to who can give you rock solid interview. I hope that the information is of value to you.

The next point I want to make is with the Disability Digest, we cover a whole area of services. And people just getting on their benefits is just the start of dealing with your disabled life and what we are here for is what we want to be for you is a support system where you can connect with all sorts of other information that is out there that’s going to help you along the way. You win your benefits. You get your check. Is it right? Can you supplement your benefits and still keep your income? What’s available for housing options? What’s out there for treatment options? All kinds of different stuff.

I don’t want to. I keep saying this but I don’t want people to think that we just have people with the Disability benefits and we do a great job of that but we do other things as well. I want to pause on the commercial I just gave but I wanted to go over other things.

Question:
I wonder if there are any questions on what I just covered.
“Brian, are you talking Allsup or Binder and Binder?”
Brian: No actually I have interviewed both of those and it’s oh what should I say, it’s proceed at your own risk? I’m not comfortable with referring members. 

Question:
“ I was just wondering who you have interviewed.”
Brian: So I’ve interviewed 210 now in the US. 210 of them and there’s about nine that we’re comfortable in having people interview with.

“Hello Brian.” Brian: Yes! “There’s a Snafu in the conference in the conference ID#. Because I just got off of the phone with Charles and a young lady from South Carolina. And the ID# that came across the screen and in the information the number was 266971. And I was online at 10:55 and I didn’t hear anything so I hung up. So I put in 266791 before I was able to get you.” Brian: Very interesting!
“Let me switch over and see if I can put the other two on the page.”
“Okay.”

“Sir?” “No they’re gone.”

Brian: Well that’s good to know Dennis.

Dennis: And good morning to everyone as well.

Brian: Well we’re just getting done Dennis now that you’ve turned up. Everyone: Laughs. Brian: Just kidding!
Gina: Yeah. I had the same problem with the access code.
Brian: So it was just one digit off huh?

“I have a question.”
Brian:  Yes. Go ahead.
“You just said that you interviewed a firm in Boston. Is that someone you’d recommend?”

Brian: Yes. We’ve actually used them for quite sometime.
“Yeah. Could you reveal the name of them?”

Brian: I would say that before we do this, have you spoken to anybody from the Disability Digest about your case?
“No.”

Brian: I would rather you get with Dennis or Gina, one of us that’s on the line today, cause one of the keys is this, there are certain firms that are good at certain items. Some that are really good with Fibromyalgia. So what we want to do today is actually take the time, go through with you, make you understand so that we have the best match for you. We would prefer to do that. You could. I don’t know how we could put you in touch with Dennis or Gina. Would one of you folks put your number out to the rest of the world or email.

Dennis and Gina: Most definitely! Certainly.

Gina: As a matter of fact, we both have Fibromyalgia, by the way. So we can relate to your illness, both of us.

Brian: So why don’t we share your number with. I didn’t catch your first name.
“My name is Jody.”
“And I’m Pearlina from Alabama.”

Dennis: Well, my name is..

Gina: My name and. Laughs. Go ahead Dennis.
Dennis: I didn’t me to proceed before you. Go ahead 

Regina.
Gina: I’m Regina. And my phone number is: 941-301-4131.
Gina: If you need somebody to talk to, I’ll answer.

Brian: Yes. I’m just looking at my list here. Question? Go ahead. Fire away.

“Yes. This is Pearlina. I kind of got in with the phone thing. Will you be discussing about Disability whether you would be getting the right amount or something?”

Brian: Yep. I’d be glad to. Let me just touch on a few more things and remind me in the question and answer session. And I’d be glad to spend sometime on you with that. Okay? I just want to finish up on a few things here. I know you all have lots of questions. Now we talked about applying, working while waiting. There’s a posted blog about that. There are things you can do while you wait. There are certain things you can do instead of sitting around being a couch potato. So there’s a post about that on the blog that’s good. We talked about the latest condition information. I’m excited to tell you about what I’ve been working on that’s been really cool. In the past month, I’ve met some really neat people that have disabilities. And they’ve been able to survive and thrive through it. Now that we’re on the topic, I’ll start with Michelle first.
 
Hopefully we can get Michelle in here so that everybody can meet her live. Michelle Toole is an interesting member on our site. She can be found under the community as well. She was 34 years old when she became disabled with a chronic condition.

When I went through and interviewed her, she actually won her Disability case in six months. She did it on her own. And she did what I just emphasized before. Do your research and put your case together properly. On the page, if your looking at it online, there’s a three part interview. With Michelle and what we have, it is just very powerful.
Part 1 is about the journey and what happened was she was a marathon runner and running a business and she had it going on. And Part 2 is about how she won her Disability case in six months and she actually put together a guide. Mary? I believe you have the guide, right?
 
Mary: Yep. I have it downloaded.

Brian: Yeah. It’s a step by step, downloaded, it’s quick and easy. There’s a lot of great tips in there.
And the last thing with Michelle is that she was hit with the cycle. She got her Disability quick and then she went on and after she won her Disability, she started thinking, “What am I going to do?” to implement my check and keep my mind from going astray? And so she tells the story in Part 3 here about how she started from scratch and was really riddled to know about computer knowledge. She followed a course and a system that she got for a couple hundred bucks. I know it. I’m aware of it. It’s a great little product. And she is at the business which is in the top 1% of all trafficked sites on the Internet now. And this is how she supplements her income now. I’m a good advocate for her and people with disabilities cause the Internet never sleeps and if you know you’ve got a condition that’s got you down for a couple of days, so what? You just catch up on your emails and what you’re doing when you come back up. And speaking firsthand from experience, with the lifestyle of the Disability Digest and the other businesses for me to run. I encourage people to go on in and listen to Michelle and what she has and the last thing that she has is she has helped a lot of other people understand how to balance their life and cope with a condition and disability. 

We discussed in our interview relationship/management techniques. Oftentimes, it’s sad but challenging when people become sick and their lifestyle changes is that their most important relationships get taxed and tested and some to the extreme that they get separate. There’s some tips in there that are very powerful all of the way through from what you can do from a diet and exercise from a spiritual perspective on what you can do to help the condition the best that you can with the ultimate condition. Even if, you’re still probably going to be disabled and even permanently disabled to get people into the system, you’re typically disabled, even if you could do something that will make you feel 5 or 10 percent better, it’s not going to cost you money but even if it does to change your eating habits or an exercise program. It’s certainly worthy of consideration. So you can check out Michelle and actually you can learn more if you’re looking at the screen. Michelle is in the community and she has a profile page where you can contact her and ask any questions you might have about how she won her case or other items. I’m just loading that up now.
 
The next one that I have and I’m going to come back to this page and I’m going to come back to it after it loads up. How many people out there are familiar with Josh Blue? “ Oh yeah. I love the guy.” He lives with cerebral palsy and is a cerebral palsy comedian. Anybody else familiar with his work? 

Everyone: comments on acknowledgements. After a month and a half of dealing with his organization, I finally had the opportunity to interview Josh. I caught him while he was out on tour in Nebraska. I’m going to go back to that right away actually. So the interview I just put it out with Josh this morning. It’s on the same page, you can click and listen to it. I went through and what I did before the interview. I collected a variety of questions from the members like what would they like most to know about Josh Blue. And What would be the single-most question that they’d like to ask? And those that know him are very intrigued with this because he was the winner of “The Last Comic Standing” which is a covenant award that they have for comedy. So he is one of the best comedians in the world right now and he suffers from cerebral palsy. 

In addition to that he is a world class
soccer player. He plays in the Para-Olympic Soccer Team and they didn’t qualify for Beijing this time. This is a guy that certainly has got his topic on straight. He has learned how to absolutely thrive despite the limitations that he has. Some of the questions that we asked alone from the interview was what inspired him to get into comedy? And where does the encouragement and inspiration come from? 

When you listen to his act and you can find that follow through here and there are some videos in the community that you can check out. But, it’s not really an act, he is just being himself. He has created such an awareness for people with disabilities that are out there that he makes people aware of disabilities and disability related issues that he does it very politely and calmly in a comical way.
You know I think that everybody needs a good laugh.
And the headline I always like to use is “Dealing with the Disability Blues with a Shot of Josh Blue”. Go on in and check that interview out. And then to get to these two interviews, you go into the Members area.
It says Success Stories. You can go in there and learn how to survive and even thrive with a disability.
So check those out. Very cool stuff!
 
Alright, the last thing I want to talk about is the last month we released the Disability Digest and our community. Mary, do you want to give a once over for those who might not be aware of it and what they can find there?

Mary: Okay yes. We have a, actually it’s growing in leaps and bounds. It’s a place where people can share their favorite photos, favorite videos, and audios. Talk to each other, put stories up there. They can get to know each other. Find out about things. If you have a question you can put your questions up there. Anybody in the know can answer that. And it has the capability but it hasn’t been turned on yet, it has the capability of Chat. We’ll be able to turn it on in the future where you can have live chat going on.

On your own profile you can have colors, put up pictures and do whatever you like. If you really want to get into it and just have fun with it. Haha! The community is basically people helping people and people taking care of each other. And we all have a lot of similarities. We have groups set up and you write on the blogs and you can say that this blog is related to this group like with fibromyalgia or its related to arthritis, diabetes, or migraines or whatever. Or people that go into the groups and read the articles that are related to that. And it kind of filters it out. And like there’s photos and stuff like that. Put your favorite photos up there and people that you’re proud of. You know I put my birth family up there because I just found them a couple of years ago. There’s pictures that you find up there. “The video about the gas is comical” Brian Oh the gas one that was soooooo funny! Oh my God”
 
Brian: Yep. Yep.

Mary: There’s some great videos on there. No there’s all kinds of fun stuff!

Brian: Actually, here you can check on the screen, I forget if I’m supposed to scroll or if that’s a smoother way to move the screen or if I’m supposed to click this. I forget. Can anybody remember?

Mary: Um. You can click the space bar or adjust a page. And there’s the groups that do.You can’t write a blog to the groups unless you join that group. So now we have about eight, nine groups or something like that. You have to go look at all of the groups and see which ones you are interested in and join them.
Then if you want to write an artcile to that group or blog to that group, then you will see on the bottom of the message in the text box there you will see the list of all the groups you have joined. Be sure that you have joined it first before you write in your blog.

Brian: Yep. Yep.

Mary: And you can rate the picture you know and you can rate how good they are. And the blogs.

Brian: Super! Thanks for the overview of the site.
You can come on and if you get stuck, you can contact us. Will help you. As we have this whole program to help you come in and that’s been a lot of fun!
Mary: We’re constantly improving it. If you have any ideas, let us know.

Brian: Yep. I didn’t know about the shop. Is that new Mary?

Mary:Yes. It is available. What you have to do to come into the other site and set up an account. And then come back with the information the other site had given you and put it in.

Brian: Sounds a little cumbersome.

Mary: I will get the information for you so you can set up an account. And then we could come back, come back and put it in.

Brian:Okay. So will the user have to do that? We can
Talk about that at another time.
Mary: Just you and then a tab will appear, the top main tabs, it says groups and home and all that.
Then there will be another tab added and you’ll see Chat.

Brian: Oh cool. Cool.

Mary: And then what it will do is pull a little program up, and anybody that wants to chat can go in there and start chatting if there are two people there or something.Two people can start chatting together.

Brian: Okay. Cool.Alright great. So let’s go on. So for now that’s everything that’s new. I’d like to cover to take some time to answer some questions and if I can’t answer them, I’m sure that somebody else can.
You know I’m sure that somebody has insight on it.

How about that we start with a question that was asked earlier? The question to find out if your check is right. Are you logged onto my computer? Are you logged on to that part of the program?

Question 1. (Pearlina) Yes. I’m logged on.
Brian: Okay I’ll show you what you can do. In the members area here, there’s a second link down, it says, “ Get all of the benefits that you are entitled to.” Find out how to get all of your income without reducing your monthly check. What I encourage people to do is go on here and listen to this interview and read the transcript. It’s with Jim Troxell and Jim Troxell works with the Commonwealth of Virginia University. He’s been in the hip pocket with Social Security for a number of years and what they do is they help people understand, you know if their check is right and how much money they can make.

And the key point here is that I encorage everybody that has been on benefits to you know if you’re on Social Security Disability but if you’re on SSI and Social Security disability combined, You should really do a benefit review every three years. And the reason for that is: Is that there are improvements to the program and they just don’t tell you about them.
There are two things that you have learned from the benefit review to make sure if your check is right. And you would also want to look at the other benefits that are available to you whether it‘s accessibility or equipment information. So how these reviews work is what this interview talks about is a different review strategy and how to do that and they have and when I say Jim Troxell and Commonwealth university have put together a program called, Work World CD. And it’s free in a lot of the states now. And if it’s not free in your state, then you can go to their website from here and it‘s 50.00. And what you do with the CD is put it in your computer and you put in your criteria.
You put in your age, your disability check and all of your information. It works kind of like one of those travel agencies, like you put in your find on where you want to fly. And it spits out your information and this is how it works. Now to some of you 50.00 is a lot, you can do a benefit review by going down to Vocational Rehabilitation or Centers for Independent Living. They also have counselors there that will help you do that. So back on the Members page here, there’s CIL’s that you can contact or V. R and they‘ll do a manual one for you. A lot of people will steer clear of Voc. Rehab.and Social Security because they don’t want to find out that they are getting a thousand bucks when they are only supposed to be getting 800 depending on what it is.
Pearlina: I wish I was getting a thousand.
Brian: Yeah! So those are some startegies to find out where you’re at right now and find out if you‘re getting the correct amount. Okay?
Pearlina: Alright. I’ll do that.
 
Brian: Good. Good.
Question 2: Just state your name and fire away and we‘ll see if we can help you out.
Bob from Minneapolis: I’m getting ready to apply again. I had drawn S.S. from ’93-2000 and then I went back to work in 2000. I have cervical spinal stenosis and also fibromyalgia. I have depression and a couple other issues and I had 22 years of sobriety and I had a relapse of drugs (street) a few years ago. It was short like a weekend but it was in my medical chart. Will that hurt me?

Brian: Are you treated for it now?

Bob: Yeah. I’ve been sober for three years since then. No. There’s no problems at all.

Brian: I always have to tell people my disclaimer, I’m not a doctor or a lawyer, but I and actually what I have learned and I came across this the other day.

Bob: I could go out to the VA and have them take it out of my chart.

Brian: You know if you had that done. No. I think you’re going to be okay.That’s my personal take.

Mary: Yeah, my sister-in-law, she was an addict.
She still got S.S. Disability. She has migraines. She jus couldn’t work because of her migraines.

Bob: Yeah. I haven’t drank in 22 years and I used drugs once.

Mary: I think about her severity and what you did,
I don’t see that that could be a problem compared to her.

Bob: Like spinal stenosis, it’s like almost an automatic. With the pain.

Mary: If you can’t function at all. It’s your functionality that counts. Can you function at all?

Bob: No, not hardly at all.
Mary: That’s what they’re going to look at and make sure your doctor records that.

Bob: Well. I’m on narcotics right now.

Brian: Well I did read this on a post in Florida the other day. If you go to Google and you go to Disability News, there’s a judge in Florida who awarded an alcoholic Disability. And which this is the first time that I’d heard of this. And the reason why he did is the person was getting consistent treatment and he had been. It’s a disease. And that’s what I said also.

Gina: Now what the judge is going to look at is that you got right back into recovery.

Bob: Oh yeah. That’s not the area. I got right back into it. Yeah. This is all. Hey is this Regina?

Mary: If it’s been long enough, I wouldn’t worry about it personally.

Bob: Regina’s on this line, right?
Brian: Yes
Bob: I’m going to call her later.
Regina: Yes. Okay.
Bob: Regina, I’m going to call you later, okay?
 
Brian: Who else has a question? Next question? Who’s got the next question?
Sharon. Hi. It’s Sharon from Manatee, California.
Brian: Hi. I couldn’t understand your first name.
Sharon: It’s Sharon.

Sharon: Right now, I’m on an appeal from Social Security and every time I call them, they are usually requesting more information from my doctors which I have given them everything I could possibly give them. And now I’m waiting to see if I’m going to be approved or not. How long does it usually take cause this is my second application? Because I’ve been turned down twice now. And this is my appeal. I finally appealed it. I’m waiting to hear. How long does that take to get that approval?

Mary: However long they want to take it.

Brian: Unfortunately, so let’s make sure I understand this, you applied, you were denied, did you go in front of a judge?

Sharon: This is my second application and the first time I was denied. I re-applied and I was denied again, so I appealed. So this is an appeal. This is the first time I appealed. They have all of my medical information cause I have had some new stuff that has come up. Carpal tunnel in both of my hands, and I also have arthritis in both of my feet which I need surgery for which will come up in the next month. I had total knee replacement on my left knee and now I have it in my right knee.

Brian: Okay. I just want to make sure I know where you’re at. I don’t want to interrupt you but I want to help you. Okay? The first application you did not appeal it, correct?

Sharon: Right.

Brian: Okay, you just submitted a new one and that’s been denied. So what they’re working on right now is
Your appeal so you can get in front of a judge. Correct?
Sharon: Well actually, it’s called a reconsideration. I think that’s what they called it.

Mary: They issue a reconsideration when there’s a denial.

Brian: But on the original application, so either you’re going to get a summary. Are you doing this yourself?

Sharon: Well what I did and like I said, I’ve had new things pop up from the start since the first application. I have carpal tunnel in both of my wrists.
Now I found out that I have arthritis in my right knee. I already had the left knee redone. I had a total knee replacement last year. And now I’m getting ready to have my feet operated on and all of this has been put into the new application. And within the last couple of months, I’ve submitted the new stuff to Social Security along with the old stuff.
So now I’m waiting for them to make a decision.
Mary: Did you get your doctor to write a functional letter for you?

Sharon: Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, my rheumatologist wrote me a letter regarding my hands because I’m an optician. We do a lot of repetitive motion with our hands or so I did. You know like repairs and putting lenses in glasses.
A lot of stuff has to be done with your thumbs. And that has to do with the carpal tunnel. He wrote me a letter, I submitted all of that already.

Brian: How old are you?

Sharon: I’m 58.

Brian: Okay. So that would certainly be an issue.

Brian: There’s a few tips and I tell this to everybody
Applying for Disability. As we are as human beings,
There’s something in our nature that when we blame our disability in language as we’re talking back and forth, not making a whole lot of sense, but I will get to my point.
We talked about the conditions and what we have, the XYZ. What really is which is irrelevant, fortunately with Social Security and the only thing that Social Security wants to know is and this is from a coaching perspective is about you and your inability to work and how those limitations have put conditions on your body. In communicating your information to me, if you haven’t done so, certainly go through the minicourse and listen to the interviews because you need to undertsand how to communicate that you can’t sit for a period of time. You can’t use your hands. You’re not able to squeeze a tennis ball for more than three times. You have to be specific with these statements to get your case through because vague statements are what gets your cas kicked to the curb. Now in your situation, your age is in your favor because you don’t have to prove necessarily to a lesser degree, you don’t have to prove that you can’t prove to do any job in U.S. economic system. You can prove your case that you’re a proven worker and you’re not able to do your current profession. How long were you in your profession?

Sharon: 25 years.

Brian: So that’s really going to be the crux of it. To speed it up, a few tips, I don’t know if you’ve been denied or if you are behind on any bills or financial pressure. But if you are and you go into Lesson four in the minicourse, it explains the Dire Need Clause.

Sharon: I’ve read everything of your Brian and it’s helped me so much. On the Reconsideration form, when you apply for that, you need the appeal. You have to type in there everything about your condition, what it’s done to you and about reading all of your stuff, I was able to go in there and type exactly what you were just talking about.

Brian: Perfect. So are you aware on how to speed it up cause I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but if you could possibly speed it up with the Dire Need Clause. That’s one thing that comes to mind.

Sharon: You know I asked my Disability worker about that, you know regarding that. I’ve seen it in your minicourse. And she told me that she couldn’t do anything to speed it up.

Brian: I would do it anyway. It wouldn’t hurt. But you know this is what I’ve learned from Disability representatives, 20% of the time it will move the date if you’re behind on your bills. The challenge is right now is that everybody puts it in and it’s becoming more and more common. But it doesn’t cost you anything that way. Sometime you have to put it together.

Sharon: I will do that.

Brian: We can’t really help with pin-pointing as there is no custom answer, to roll the ball and tell you how long it’s going to take.

Mary: The thing is that my husband did a similar application too and it seemed like it took forever for the first level and stuck around. What we found out is that they turned around and sent hom to a psychologist. And the Doc said he wasn’t disabled and then he had to send it to another state for more information. There was a ________ and they had to send it to another state. What this guy had to prove and I meant my husband and they had to go through a higher up to prove and that’s what took so long. He went over every detail and he found that my husband was declared disabled. And it just took a long time with what he went through to get it.

Sharon: We went through different doctors.

Mary: Yeah he went through one of their Social Security doctors to get it.

Brian: Don’t leave anything to chance.
We had somebody the other day that had stage four cancer and was on their second denial. One would think that they would be listening. But anyway.
Someone: You would have to read their rule book.

Brian: Well yeah it’s not so much as that, you’ve got to have the right information to support it and it’s a customized language again. All right. Let’s move on, who’s got the next question? Any housing questions? Jobs or income?
 
Jody: Well my name is Jody and I don’t have a question about that but I do have a question about if you’re still going to doctor to doctor and test after test to find out what’s even wrong with you. And basically they can’t give me a diagnosis, is there any issues with the Social Security Disability with applying for it I should say?

Brian: Do you have like a chroninc fatigue/fibromyalgia syndrome, something like that?

Jody: Fibromyalgia, Neuropathy. They thought I had Brian: So that they haven’t been able to spot it?
Or a diagnosis? Well we have some other material and we also have a fibromyalgia guide in a popular website that we have. And the second lesson in there which is put together with Carl Osterhowe. He’s an attorney that does a great job with chronic fatigue syndrome. The point is that with fibromyalgia in particular, it is very difficult to win without having a clear diagnosis. Unless there’s another debilitating condition that you have applying with your case, I would focus on getting diagnosed. And maybe using the good doctor’s list that we have for fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. And see if you can find somebody who understands it. Here is the thing of it that I’ve learned, you can help it with the right pin points. It’s just that it’s such a misunderstood condition that a doctor hasn’t been able to spot it.

Some of the other fibromyalgia sufferers like Gina and Mary and the others out there will have more insight into this.
Mary: there are a few simple tests that they can do to prove it.

Jody: Well I was diagnosed with it two years ago.
Pearlina: About the arthritis foundation back in 1980.
And it’s a matter of your doctors if you can believe cause this is true. Fibromyalgia is considered a disease. It’s a specific arthritis condition in that class.

Sharon: Arthritis and fibromyalgia are related to each other.

Pearlina: I had problems because of the fibromyalgia.I was fired and I went to an appeal and I had me a lawyer and we went over the information that he had gotten that’s going to be brought up in the appeal case before the judge. And it had a doctors name in there that said I wasn’t fit to go to work. I told him I didn’t see a doctor and they didn’t call me. I hadn’t spoken to any doctors at all. So he got the judge to throw that out cause he couldn’t use that information. I was never contacted. I was never seen by Social Security doctors. The doctor has to be very specific in the notations. His main concern is the fibromyalgia and the other problems you may be having. Because that’s what they look at is the consistency with your doctor. It’s his notations concerning the problems you might have.

Brian: Good advice. You know Jody maybe I misunderstood. Did you say you have a diagnosis from two years ago?
Jody: Yeah. Well two years ago they diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. ‘When I look back now, that was just the start of everything. You know and now since September, I’ve gone downhill. I have lost my job.
I’m like some days I can walk.
 
Sharon: Is there a test for it? Is there a test for fibromyalgia?

Mary: No there are. There are tests for fibromyalgia but the doctors are reluctant. They can do a sleep study that will show your brain waves for whether you reache delta level or not. If you don’t reach delta level, then that’s one proof. Another proof is a spinal tap for sepsis P. If you have a large appearance of sepsis P in your spinal fluid, that’s another piece of evidence that you have fibromyalgia. And the pin points is just a basic test.
Somebody: Isn’t there a blood test that they can do for that?

Gina: No. No.

Mary: They can use an MRI cause it will show your brain is getting tons and tons of pain signals that a normal person does not get. There are other ways to prove it. It is called a functional MRI.

Brian: So Jody.

Mary: A functional MRI is actually. It is different from other MRI’s as it’s like a motion picture of watching your brain work while you’re in the machine. And they can see where the pain signals are flashing.
And when your pain signals are constant flashing and then they know that you are having a lot of pain. And the final test is that they look for sepsis P. A high amount of sepsis P means you’re in a lot of pain.
Pearlina: A low level of serotonin from the spinal fluid. They can do both tests.

Mary: Cause this is a neurological disease.

Mary: My lawyers going to use my sleep study. I never reached the delta level during my sleep. I inly reached the first two. The delta levels are where the body repairs itself. And if your body can’t repair itself and create more hormones and all, there’s no way you can fight off the pain signals. I was reading an article the other day about that fibromyalgia is actually a disease of the pain pathways. It changes the pain pathways and that’s what heats up the pressure or at touch. Instead of feeling pressure, you feel pain. It’s a great article. I put it out in the community. I put it in the community in the blog. It’s in Fibro.
 
Brian: So if you have you gone over and set up your profile in the community Jody?

Jody: No I haven’t.

Brian: If you do that, you go to the Fibromyalgia group. Yep. Yep.
Mary: You go to the fibromyalgia group and it will be under that.
Brian: So your question, do you have enough evidence to start an application for Disability?
Well if you have a diagnosis, was it by a rheumotologist?

Jody: Aw yes.

Brian: then you should be okay. One of the things you should do with your strategy, if you haven’t done so already, you know is go through the minicourse and use a representative. If a representative looks at your case.

Jody: I did that.

Brian: And what did they say?

Jody: It was your wife and she’s the one that guided me to Brian.

Brian: And what did Brian say?

Jody: He said I definitely have a case. And he will take me on.

Brian: Yep. Yep.

Pearlina: If you do a journal of pain, login the journal. That means everyday you write your pain down and what kind of pain you’re having, the degree of pain you’re having, and the medication that you have to take for it. There are several scales you can get. There’s a website called Fibrohope.org.
If the .org doesn’t show up just use the .com. And fibromyalgia.com There’s three different websites but it’s those two I go most to. Because they also have a magazine that’s called Fibromyalgia Aware. You can type that in as a website and it gives you a whole lot of information and it also gives you a pain scale.With 10 being the worst and 1 it doesn’t bother you at all.
“So does Social Security use your log and actually read it?”
Jody: I try to give them to my doctor and they just sort of look over them and they throw it out.

Pearlina: That’s another piece of evidence though.
You keep it. This is to know what’s happening to me.
And another thing is I just go by how I feel because at that point, I couldn’t sit or stand for no more than fifteen or thirty minutes at a time. I was cold and hot so I had a sweater and a pillow for my neck a pillow for my behind and my back. I wanted to describe how I was feeling. I don’t know what kind of expression was on my face, my eyes was closed, I had one knee in the chair because I couldn’t sit down and I couldn’t stand on my feet. And I described everything that was going on with my body. And he said, I don’t need anymore information. It took them thirty years to discover that this is what my problem was.
 
Jody: Is that normal to go through an appeal like this or do you normally have to see a judge?Or do they approve the appeal before you see a judge?

Brian: That’s the part that I talked about earlier What a lot of representatvies are able to do 70% of the time is get an On the Record decision means that
It will actually have to go to a hearing. That’s what Social Security is trying to do to pullout the back log. So what they do now is a representative will go down or send the case that they have in their books down to the judge, Okay this one’s good, this one’s not, this one’s good, this one’s not. That’s how it’s been explained to me. Hey Mary?

Mary: Huh?

Brian: I don’t know if you’re willing to share this but Mary has an all natural product option. I’ve been aware of for a couple of years. That’s had some success in reducing the discomfort from fibro.

Mary: Oh yeah. I’ll tell you I’m out of it and I’m just dying. It’s called O-24 for fibromyalgia. It’s O-24 fibromyalgia. What it is and you can get it in different ways. You can get it in spray bottle and you can get it in towelettes. I always get it in the spray bottle cause a little bit goes a long way. And you just put a little bit and I spray it on my knees, my muscles, my legs and my back. You gently rub it in. And you can feel. It’s made of seven oils. And you can feel it sinking down easing your muscles and the pain going away.
 
“Where do you buy this at?”
Mary: I’m going to be putting a link and you buy it online. Or you can call the phone number. I’ll be putting a link on the community site where you can buy it. We were told it sold at Rite Aid stores and at Pro Health. The company’s done some re-arranging.

It sort of disappeared for awile and now it’s settling down. The US distribution president called me about it and I said oh there you are. And the stuff is fantastic! I swear to God. I rub it on my joints and I can sleep through the night. And I wake up and I feel good. I feel so good when I wake up. It’s made up of essential herbal oils. It’s a proprietary blend and they don’t use anything else in it.

Brian: So Mary, just to wrap up on this. You’re going to put a link in with the Fibro group?

Mary: Aw yeah. I’m going to put a link on the community. On the two sites. Just so you can go and find it. They have a lot of other products coming out too. It’s really great and I’m so excited.

Brian: Just my two cents on this. I actually met with these folks two years ago when I was starting this business. When I first discovered the product of O-24
It was just discovered that it worked for fibro sufferers. It has been used for years by sports teams. It started out with professional hockey teams used it because they were in such pain that they used this treatment and I would imagine that if poignos would use this stuff if there was chronic pain it would be worth a try to see if maybe it would be able to provide some relief. Let’s move on. I have maybe six or seven minutes left. I have to move on to the next appointment.
 
So I want to take in a few more questions. Who else has a question that we haven’t been able to address?
Pearlina: Yes there’s one more question. There’s a credti card company that I pay this bill to. Insurance and all. And they are denying me the benefits because I was diagnosed way too early. I was diagnosed in 1999 and got on Disability in 2000.

I get the computer and it’s not in my name until 2003. I get the insurance and then because of the time that I was diagnosed and got on Disability, it was over 365 days.
Brian: So what type of insurance would this be for?
Pearlina: It was more or less for my debt to them.
Brian: Oh I see. If you have a credit card debt So is your question is that you need help to get this straightened out?

Pearlina: Yes because they told me I could use this new diagnosis that I got last year which I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse. And I have carpal tunnel in my right hand. I have had surgery in both hands and I’m not doing surgery again because the types of things I enjoy doing relaxes me. I would have to be constantly concerned of that. But the problem is right now, my primary physician is 110 miles round trip for me. The other doctor that I use did not set it out because he’s only known me for about three and a half years or fours years. Yeah yeah. Four years this month when I moved to a small town. My cardiologist, he’s seen me twice. They’re saying one thing, but out of the five or ten doctors that I see is to get it out with the new date. And the new problem.

Brian: Okay. So there’s a two fold issue here. One is trying to get the doctors to comply with what you need and you’re trying to get this credit card company to do their thing, right?

Pearlina: I’ve paid the credit limt. I’ve paid the bank completely off.

Brian: Okay. This is not my area of expertise. I would suggest that you would consider using the same strategy with treating doctors with those that apply for Disability, if it’s long term S.S. disability and are not getting their doctors to help them. There’s two startegies: You can either ask a doctor which is the least favorable thing to do something or you can tell them and have it all done for them. ‘what I mean by that is if you take an attempted letter, excuse me but that satisfies the credit card company. Take it in to your doctor, have it all filled out and have them sign it. Got it! That makes it a lot easier for them. Doctors are going to do whatever they can to avoid additional work.That’s a start.
 
Pearlina: What it is that they send me the paper, I fill it out and send it to the doctor and I put in that last part and I put in as much information as I can on his section, except for the diagnosis and anything he has to write in.

Brian: Okay. So you’ve done that.

Pearlina: I do that and they paid for February and March cause I got the paper. March is when I got the paper. The paper has been to four doctors and returned back to me.

Brian: So is the doctor not signing it?

Pearlina: He’s signing but because of my other doctors see me more often than he does, had not been consistently sending him reports when I go to visit him. Because one of the stipulations in the doctors section is: How has your patient’s condition changed over the last six months? And that’s why I was dealing with the primary physician that I was seeing for colds and this respiratory problem. He;s here in twon instead of making an appointment for two weeks later for the cold or whatever it is to be gone. From Jan, I had the crud, two respiratory infections, sinus hay fever and infection, and was on antibiotics and now I’m dealing with bronchitis. So my body hasn’t had a chance to rest and even with sleep apnea and all. And the medications that they normally use, the narcotics, I’m allergic to them.

Brian: Okay. I got that part. I just trying to get my head around to where the real challenge is. If the doctors communicated properly, I guess about your primary care and all of the docs were filled in you wouldn’t have this concern. Is that right?

Pearlina: And I have had four doctors to send my complete records.

Brian: So you’re just really trying to find a way for those doctors to comply, right?
Pearlina: Right.
 
Brian: Any tips from anybody out there?Any other suggestions other than what I’ve just provided?
Baseball bat? Everyone laughs.
Pearlina: I’m not going to be getting any more money for a protection plan other than what they’ll allow me to have.

Brian: Here’s my last thought for you. Just check this out. Certainly you’re going to do what you can to get those doctors to comply because and here’s the other thing is they put up a roadblock and it’s costing you money, then I would take this situation that you have just presented to me and I would bring it in to your local Center for Independent Living. And you can find a local center in the members area and most of the local centers exist around the US and if you can go to one of these agencies who advocate for people with disabilities. They have counseling. They have guidance. And their job typically is to help with issues. Again do your very best to get those doctors to comply. And if you need an additional resource, I would check your local Center for Independent Living to see if they have something there that can help you out. Okay?
Pearlina: I am going to be doing that.I hadn’t even thought that out.Like I say I’m just in a little small town outside of Burlingham, Alabama. And it is very small and has a big temper for what I say.
To not damage my husband or condition.

Brian: Well you’re just trying to get what you’re entitled to. I don’t think that it’s something unreasonable.

Pearlina: This is one avenue I hadn’t even thought about and I was trying to rack my brain. What’s the next step to decide to avoid going to the Better Business which I have done with a couple of companies.

                {end of the conference}