I hope you get the assistance from SS Disability soon. I know you can’t receive it until you’ve been deemed disabled for 6 months. I was devastated to having my career come to an abrupt halt, and put off requesting it for a year in hopes I could shake this thing off and get back some (or all) working ability. But when I applied, it was very smooth; the paperwork, links to doctors and medical records, etc. were all in order; they even paid retroactively for the time I could have been drawing. The amount is insulting compared to what I lost in earnings, but it helps, especially since I had planned to work and continue to save for retirement another 10 years. But, I’m thinking positive, and hope you have a smooth process. It saddens me to hear some folks hire attorneys who take a % of their entitlement from them, when they can apply without them. One thing to note; if you’re disabled from neuropathy to where you can’t work, you don’t need a cause for your neuropathy. My neuropathy cause is not known and it came long before Covid and Covid vaccines. So keep your chin up, I hope the processing time is reasonable given the labor shortages and backlogs in almost everything right now, but I found the process itself fair, though good record keeping helps.

I'm so sorry you are suffering like this. I agree that it's so challenging to work while in pain. I had to take 3 months of partial/full medical leave, but have not applied for disability. By 16 months of disability, I meant 16 months of physical limits and restricted activity. I hope your application for disability will be approved soon!