Shan,
I have SSD although I went through hell and back to get it. I too advise that the
BEST way to go about getting it is to obtain a SSD attorney. They, by law, can't charge over a certain amount and, in my case and most others, just take their fee out of your back disability payments that they get for you. I paid nothing out of pocket for my attorney. I fought for over a year to get SSD, just banging my head against a wall for most of that time, but when I obtained an attorney, it took less than 2 weeks before I was approved!
Wish I would have known to do that sooner and saved myself a lot of grief!
In addition to hiring an attorney, I have some other tips off the top of my head:
Get letters from your doctors explaining your situation to "whom it may concern". Tell your doctors what you are trying to do and stress to them the importance of making you sound as bad off as possible (without lying of course!).
In the forms you fill out (and believe me there will be endless forms!), where they ask how well you do certain tasks etc., make yourself out to be in as bad condition as possible.
Include (even though they don't require it) printed information about MM from reliable sources, such as from the links here. I say this because MM is not listed on SSD's list of automatic qualifying diseases/disorders and they don't know much about it. If it isn't on their list and they don't know about it they will just automatically turn you down (instead of doing a little research themselves!)You can inform them so they have no excuse to drag your case on and on.
Make copies of ALL of the forms you fill out before sending them in. Save yourself a lot grief- you'll see why later!
That's all the advice I have for the moment but let me think on my experience some and I might come up with more.
Just FYI, here's a newspaper article that was done on me while I was fighting for SSD and Medicaid. It's not exactly accurate (reporters never get EVERYTHING correct it seems) but you'll get some idea of what I went through.
Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!! You need to
or
I'm more than happy to help you with this process or if you have any questions along the way. Hope this helped and, most of all,
GOOD LUCK! Don't let the process drive you crazy!
Lisa