Disability
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:54 pm
Well, I'm out on disability. Idiopathic Peripheral Neuropathy in the feet, legs and now arms and hands. Kind of hard to work tornado debris fields or HAZMAT scenes when you're unsteady on your feet, don't always know where your feet are, and can't stand for long periods of time. It's also distracting when random jolts of pain fire off in your feet and hands.
The state retirement system will pay me 40% of my base pay and I am in the process of applying for Social Security Disability (required by the state system). The financial bite continues in 7 or 8 years when I hit retirement age. The disability stops and with only 15 years in the state retirement system won't pay shit. Will also be getting registered with the VA system.
I can work (if pre-approved by the state system), but I'm going to have to see what is out there that I feel up to doing. At any rate I'm not going to do anything about that until after the first of the year. Going to relax through the holidays.
In the meantime the state system has assigned a case worker who will monitor medical treatment with my doctors and see if they can't come up with some way to fix the issues. I don't hold out much hope as it is by definition "unknown cause". Not an MD, but I'd feel a lot better about treatments if we could work on the cause not the symptoms. One that everyone with neuropathy seems to ask about is gabapentin or some such. Looked it up. Treats symptoms, not cause. Side affects include depression, suicidal thoughts, and aggressive responses. JUST what I need. It also has some studies that indicate issues with "toxicity" in people with kidney issues, which I also have. Probably why none of my doctors have recommended it and it gets a big nope from me. "Cure" worse than the disease.
For the near future, I've go honey-do's around the house, some stuff to help out at the VFW, and once I get some work done on my antennas I can start playing around with that more. Don't know how much the budget (once it settles out) will allow shooting. I know National Match is right out, as I can't get into a sitting position and maintain it anymore without a lot of pain and the slow fire standing is problematic as well.
This being Thanksgiving week I should say that I am grateful as it could be so much worse. My issues seem pretty trivial compared what some of the guys on this board or at my VFW post are going through.
The state retirement system will pay me 40% of my base pay and I am in the process of applying for Social Security Disability (required by the state system). The financial bite continues in 7 or 8 years when I hit retirement age. The disability stops and with only 15 years in the state retirement system won't pay shit. Will also be getting registered with the VA system.
I can work (if pre-approved by the state system), but I'm going to have to see what is out there that I feel up to doing. At any rate I'm not going to do anything about that until after the first of the year. Going to relax through the holidays.
In the meantime the state system has assigned a case worker who will monitor medical treatment with my doctors and see if they can't come up with some way to fix the issues. I don't hold out much hope as it is by definition "unknown cause". Not an MD, but I'd feel a lot better about treatments if we could work on the cause not the symptoms. One that everyone with neuropathy seems to ask about is gabapentin or some such. Looked it up. Treats symptoms, not cause. Side affects include depression, suicidal thoughts, and aggressive responses. JUST what I need. It also has some studies that indicate issues with "toxicity" in people with kidney issues, which I also have. Probably why none of my doctors have recommended it and it gets a big nope from me. "Cure" worse than the disease.
For the near future, I've go honey-do's around the house, some stuff to help out at the VFW, and once I get some work done on my antennas I can start playing around with that more. Don't know how much the budget (once it settles out) will allow shooting. I know National Match is right out, as I can't get into a sitting position and maintain it anymore without a lot of pain and the slow fire standing is problematic as well.
This being Thanksgiving week I should say that I am grateful as it could be so much worse. My issues seem pretty trivial compared what some of the guys on this board or at my VFW post are going through.