It's begun. I emailed Sally over at Maggie's World with a plea for advice. She wrote me back with her usual fantastic sense of humor, walked me through it, and so I began. I labored for nearly an hour on the computer, filling out one million boxes and simultaneously waited for nearly fifteen minutes on hold with the Social Security office trying to make an appointment. Given that I was disconnected mysteriously from that call and then felt faint at the prospect of filling out Sophie's various hospitalizations -- do I need to go through the files I have in that white filing cabinet in the kitchen or do I need to contact the miasma that is the administration of UCLA? -- I've decided to dissociate from the "work" I did and change the sheets on my bed.
Reader, what are you up to?
I'm answering emails from a beleaguered mom in LA and rememebering how ridiculous all of that was.
ReplyDeleteRead this. And don't try any funny business getting through security
http://sfmaggie.blogspot.com/2012/03/security-social-and-otherwise.html#links
Strangely enough, about to go put the clean sheets on the bed.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got married and moved to California, I left a great job (Hq USAF at The Pentagon) and went to work for S.S.A. in San Diego. I spent the next two years being depressed! I hope Sophie's application will go smoothly.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Bonnie
Dear god!! What a nightmare. I deal with the Medicare/Medicaid systems both, SSI man...whew. That's a bitch.
ReplyDeleteLaundry and setting up doctor/dentist/eye doctor appointments. Must be Spring around the corner. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh boy, I will be picking your brain in a few months on the same thing!
ReplyDeleteSomething's in the air - I just changed the sheets, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm over here brainstorming about how and where to submit a few essays I've written that I think deserve a wider audience than my blog.
Good luck with SSI. Here's hoping you find a kind representative to usher you through.
I'm IN my bed disassociating from the large check I sent to my attorney yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog and I love it. I don't have a child with a disability (or, er, a child at all) but I love your blog. I spent last night reading through a lot of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm chronically of the last 2 years unemployed so I seem to spend a lot of time rather than looking for work (well, there is no work but one can dream) or writing in my own blog(www.jobsearchinginvancouver.wordpress.com) which actually turned out more often to be about my obsession with brainwashed Mormons but no matter, doing changing sheets kind of things. I spent the last 20 minutes, for example, looking at a paper towel with a magnifying glass.
Eeek. I hope you aren't Mormon or you may be really insulted.
- Karen
I will be e-mailing you compulsively when it's our turn. I so dread it, soooooooo dread it. All I've ever heard about SS is how aggravating they are to deal with. One dad said, "Whatever you get in the mail, ignore it, you'll get something the next day that says the opposite." My MIL is dealing still trying to sort out her SS situation five long months later. Every day the story changes!
ReplyDeleteBTW, tomorrow I am changing sheets. Nothing like feeling like you accomplished something, and oh, that great fresh-sheet smell!
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to our strange and wonderful community! And I am not insulted easily. Nor am I Mormon.
I am overwhelmed simply paying the gas bill (which is currently late because it's sitting on the dining room table, and I just can't get myself to do anything about it), so I feel tremendous sympathy.
ReplyDeleteI kind of love that Anonymous signed her name.
Just returned from a lecture by Stanley Plumly speaking on Keats — tender, illuminating, heartfelt. Moved to tears several time. Now I'm working on re-entering the "real" world. (But don't want to.)
ReplyDeleteI don't have clean sheets and I am not Mormon, either.
ReplyDeleteI hate that you have to jump these hoops and I will just send you lots of love and light for strength, perseverance, and some sort of fantastic circus lady costume with sequins and feathers. (Because of the hoops).
I know about dealing with social security; it is my annual nightmare to get my elder bedridden nonverbal aunt re-certified for home care. it is a mindless loop of document requirements and physician signatures that takes several months each year to unwind. i start in october and finally around the following july i get a notice in the mail that she has been re-certified for another year. usually, i have to resubmit copies of all the paperwork at least once, as they mysteriously disappear. Some years (though not lately) i have had to get a lawyer involved. It is soul destroying. But I am not telling you anything you dont know. Thank you anyway for allowing me to vent. Intermittent disassociation is a good strategy. I hope is goes more smoothly for you!
ReplyDeleteMy younger (uninsured) relative and I worked to get Medicaid for him so he could be treated for bladder cancer and then later to get disability. He told me recently he believes his petitions were approved so quickly because they were sure he was going to die soon. Ha. He is alive, still weak and underweight, but growing stronger by the day, growing a beautiful garden, and walking to the river for a daily dose of sunrise. I hope the process goes smoothly (as smooth as it can) for you and Sophie.
ReplyDelete