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KATHY GEE
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 12:56 pm: | 
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I AM 46 YEARS OLD AND HAVE RECENTLY BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH PARKINSON DISEASE. I AM TAKING SINEMET TWICE A DAY. COULD I QUALIFY FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS? I WORKED ALL MY LIFE AND HAVE PAID IN ENOUGH TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY. I ALSO RECEIVED A LETTER FROM SS STATING THE AMOUNT I COULD GET FOR DISABILITY. I JUST DON'T KNOW IF I'M ELIGIBLE OR NOT. |
Paul McChesney (Admin)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 8:10 pm: |
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That depends on how it affects you. Katherine Hepburn played in On Golden Pond with Parkinson's. Can you do your old work? Can you lift and carry? Can you write and type? At the speeds necessary for employment? Maybe sit down and talk with an attorney. |
Paul McChesney (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 1053
Registered: 5-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 8:24 pm: |
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Ms. Mills corrected me with this private post, that she gave me permission to publish:
I know this was an old post, but I would like to correct you about Katherine Hepburn. She had familial tremor (benign essential tremor), not Parkinson'••••• is a big misconception of many people who are in the administrative decision-making area that make it very hard on Parkinson's because of this. Parkinson's is progressive and affects many systems of the body. Essential tremor only has the tremor...no body system involvement. I am a healthcare worker in neurology and feel it is very important that disability decision-makers become more informed about Parkinson's. You are making decisions about someone's life. Your decisions about helping these people can cause a life or death situation. I have seen Parkinson's who can no longer work because of their terrible fluctuations in motor problems, stiffness to the point of frozen for hours, tremors, inability to speak, swallow, thinking and more than just these few signs. They have fluctuations in their medications because of no fault of their own....it is the erratic brain activity (and, yes, even in young PDers who may have been on meds only 5 years!) They can't work, even in sedentary positions. But because they look so good when they are interviewed, the disability worker feels they could do something in the workplace. These people load themselves up with medication (which is not safe) so they can even move to get to the disability appointment. Then you see them "on" or moving fairly well, not realizing that they are not showing you a real picture of their life. Then you deny them disability benefits and the people can't work, have to choose between medicine and eating. And, of course, eating is #1. Their meds are not bought anymore, then we see them in the emergency room, with pneumonia because they didn't take medicine because they can't move, they are incontinent because they can't move to get to the bathroom, they can't eat due to not being able to swallow properly because no medicine, they can't tell anyone because they can hardly speak without their medicine/s. This is a true course that happens with young and older Parkinsonians over and over which I see in the medical field. I know that you have people who truly fake and use fraudulant means to get disability benefits, but Parkinsonians don't. Yes, one minute a Parkinsonian may be walking as if no problems or little problems affect them, but the next minute they can be completely frozen and unable to move or have dangerous erratic movements. I have had Parkinson's patients in my office in tears because they may know someone who received disability because of depression or some other non-motor disease that if someone looked at them they could not detect the disability. I have been working in the movement disorder and Parkinson's field for 20 years. Please, please learn more about Parkinson's and please spread the word to other disability decision-makers.
DJ Mills, RN |
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