Medical, Moving and Living Expenses
Donation protected
Three years ago this month, I filed for social security disability. Last week, I received my third denial, even though Social Security's own witness testified that there was no work I could do. My attorney is now trying to decide whether to file a lawsuit in federal court or file a new case in a few months, but either way a solution is not happening soon. I've burned through my savings. I've burned through my mother's savings. I've lost my home and now live with my family, in a 340-foot mother-in-law suite that used to be a storage building. Shame and embarrassment have led me to isolate myself from my 'real life' friends.
For the last eight months I have not had the money to either go to the doctor or get prescriptions filled. Because I do not have minor children, I do not qualify for Medicaid in Florida (which did not accept federal funds to expand their Medicaid coverage). There is no help for me under 'ObamaCare'. My mother has a farm in Arkansas. Arkansas has expanded their Medicaid coverage and I should qualify. I need help to get there. I need help to afford the doctor visits and the prescriptions, to survive until I finally get approval from the social security program that I paid into by working for twenty-five years (in service fields where I helped people: the law, child welfare, as a CNA in a hospital). I'm tired. I'm desperate. And I have no pride left, so I'm asking strangers for help.
Many people believe that trying to get disability means you are lazy and committing fraud. The illnesses I have struggled with for over a decade are fibromyalgia, type II diabetes, depression, arthritis and Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis. The illnesses I was diagnosed with three years ago during a hospital stay for suicidal ideations are rapid cycling Bipolar Disorder (II), Major Depressive Disorder with Pyschotic Features, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Primary Generalized Epilepsy. Without insurance and with taking only generic medications that were popular in the 1980s, my prescription costs were still over $300 a month. The newer more effective medications would cost a great deal more than that.
Being mentally ill in this society is like being a leper. Being in pain twenty-four hours a day is exhausting. Most people don't know what it's like to go to sleep every night praying to God that you just won't wake up again. I do.
Ask me anything. Please share.
For the last eight months I have not had the money to either go to the doctor or get prescriptions filled. Because I do not have minor children, I do not qualify for Medicaid in Florida (which did not accept federal funds to expand their Medicaid coverage). There is no help for me under 'ObamaCare'. My mother has a farm in Arkansas. Arkansas has expanded their Medicaid coverage and I should qualify. I need help to get there. I need help to afford the doctor visits and the prescriptions, to survive until I finally get approval from the social security program that I paid into by working for twenty-five years (in service fields where I helped people: the law, child welfare, as a CNA in a hospital). I'm tired. I'm desperate. And I have no pride left, so I'm asking strangers for help.
Many people believe that trying to get disability means you are lazy and committing fraud. The illnesses I have struggled with for over a decade are fibromyalgia, type II diabetes, depression, arthritis and Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis. The illnesses I was diagnosed with three years ago during a hospital stay for suicidal ideations are rapid cycling Bipolar Disorder (II), Major Depressive Disorder with Pyschotic Features, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Primary Generalized Epilepsy. Without insurance and with taking only generic medications that were popular in the 1980s, my prescription costs were still over $300 a month. The newer more effective medications would cost a great deal more than that.
Being mentally ill in this society is like being a leper. Being in pain twenty-four hours a day is exhausting. Most people don't know what it's like to go to sleep every night praying to God that you just won't wake up again. I do.
Ask me anything. Please share.
Organizer
Sarah Kirbo
Organizer
DeFuniak Springs, FL
