Hi Laura, Yes I can definitely relate, I don't have your condition but mine was Heart related. But either way I had to finally leave a job I loved and move into early retirement on disability.
I actually pushed it a bit longer, like it sounds like you have, and my Doctors were suggesting they would recommend disability or a different type of work. The job I had was pretty physical in nature and required long hours driving.
So long story short I finally was kind of forced into it when my Heart got so bad I needed a transplant.
So on to SSI, and at the time I worked for the federal Government. I was in the Hospital for about 10 weeks during the lead up and completion of the Transplant. I started the paperwork for Disability with my employer and it required I file also with SSI which I did.
Interesting enough I got approved for both and I wondered why I always heard it was almost guaranteed to be turned down the first time.
Well that was the interest part is I started filling online for ssi just to meet my works requirements and because I didn't finish in the allotted time it got denied from lack of information. So I called after getting out of the hospital to see how to fix it and the lady took my application on the phone right then. A couple months later I got an approval . So I actually started collecting on SSI before my government disability got approved. Sure seemes a higher power was definitely in my corner. And that all worked out well as 2 years after getting SSI your eligible for Medicare and now I have that also. So I still miss my work and I left it at 58 but now at 63 I'm finding other areas similar to my work to keep me happy. I can't explained why I got it so easy, but I figured it was that my doctors were willing to say I could not work in that position anymore and also my work said the same thing. Plus the phone interview helped a lot I think. I hope you are successful in your quest.
And if n i can help further please
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Blessings