Talking to your doctor is a crucial part of getting approved for social security disability. This can sometimes be the number one factor. Unfortunately, those conversations can often be cut short, or you may not know exactly what to bring up to your doctor.
First, let’s make sure that you do indeed NEED social security disability. Ask yourself the following:
Is chronic pain affecting your daily life?
Are you having trouble holding a job because of pain affecting your work?
Are simple tasks and functions hard to complete?
Is it difficult for you to sit or stand for any length of time?
If you answered YES to the four above questions, you may be able to relieve some of your financial burden that would allow you to get needed rest and alleviate some of your pain!
Right now, your life probably feels like a roller coaster. Some days you feel like climbing a mountain and other days you can’t even walk to the fridge. I get it. Chronic pain is NOT an easy thing to live with. It’s life-altering. Unfortunately, some doctors don’t believe in the disability concept. It’s easy to brush concepts off when you’ve never experienced it for yourself.
Here’s a common example of how a doctors appointment may look:
You are experiencing a really rough week. Standing for any length of time causes your legs to swell and feel stiff. You call in sick to work in hopes resting will help.
A few days pass and you spend the majority of your time sleeping in hopes that you can sleep the pain away. You finally manage to pick up the phone and call your doctor to make an appointment. Often when you go to the doctor for this kind of problem, they want to hear about your symptoms. After the week you’ve experienced, you start by saying, “I can’t stand very long. My leg gets so stiff and swollen.” After your visit, you’ll probably leave with a stronger prescription, but without adding value to your case.
Your doctor more than likely documented your symptoms in your file, and that your prescription was adjusted, but there was no step made toward bettering the problems that you do have or getting you any closer to qualifying for disability that would allow you to focus more on bettering yourself without worrying financially.
We all know you can’t stand over your doctor’s shoulder and proofread everything he/she has written about you during your appointment, but you can change the way you present yourself to them.
Instead of listing all of your symptoms and moving on, talk about HOW your pain is affecting you. Elaborate on how the pain is impacting your everyday life no matter how small.
Try saying something like: “After about 30 minutes, my leg gets so stiff and swollen that I can’t bare to stand any longer. I can only stand for about 3 or 4 hours per day, then I can’t get up for the rest of the day. And when I lay down too long, a throbbing sensation takes over. I cannot perform simple daily tasks nor can I go to any of my grandkids ball games. This is also causing me to miss work, since there is standing and sitting for long periods of time involved with my job.” Not only are you relaying your symptoms, you are also describing how the symptoms are affecting your life and causing everyday, mundane tasks to be difficult or impossible because of the pain that it causes.
With proper and consistent documentation of your disability by your doctor, you will increase your chances of approval.
Remember, If you have been denied social security disability and feel there has been an injustice – call me today or fill out our form! My team will be happy to review your case and let you know how we can help. – 501-354-4577.