I need some advice

[nursefairy]

I was diagnosed about 6 years ago with RRMS. At the time, I was working full time as a Registered Nurse on a busy med/surg unit. 2 1/2 years ago, I had to give that up because of the physical and mental demands of the job. I went in to management.

Because of the upsurge of patients and not enough staff, they have been pulling managers to do patient assignments. I cannot physically do this anymore. I don't know what to do. I am exhausted and want to crawl under a rock.

I have so much pain in my shoulder, my doc put me out of work for 2 weeks. It's tendonitis...not related to MS.

I guess my question is, would I be able to go out on disability or do I run myself in to the ground. UGH...I just don't know what to do or where to go

[Mamabug]

Jodi --

I've read that, in order to be approved for SSDI, you'll need to prove that you can't work. You don't need to prove that you can't work at all, but that you can't do a substantial amount of work. One way to prove this is to show that there is no job you can perform full time on a "regular and sustained basis."

You can also be approved for disability if you prove that your condition would make you miss too much work.

I'm no expert, though. Hopefully, Rich will be along soon to answer your question.

[Rich Feingold]

Am I "disabled" under SSA's laws

Hi, mamabug and nursefairy. Sorry to hear about the problems you've been having at work, nursefairy.

The answer to your question, nursefairy, depends upon a number of factors, such as whether or not your MS meets SSA's listing for MS. If not, the issue is whether you can perform your "past relevant work," which is work that you have performed in the past 15 years, generally, that you did long enough to learn it and that you performed at the "Substantial Gainful Activity" level.

If you cannot perform your past relevant work because you do not have the "residual functional capacity" to perform that physical and mental demands of your past relevant work, the next question is whether you can perform any other work given your age, education, transferable skills from your past relevant work and, once again, your residual functional capacity.

Well, that's a mouthful, isn't it.

Rich