How-tos and Questions About Filing for Disability

How-tos and Questions About Filing for Disability

I am honored that Alison invited me to write a post about filing for disability from an attorney’s perspective. I hope to answer some of the most common questions claimants ask in regards to filing for disability. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Tatiana Froes. I am a disability attorney practicing disability…

Caregiving: Do I need to hire a caregiver?
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Caregiving: Do I need to hire a caregiver?

While the term caregiver is bandied about a lot in the disabled community, it’s important to distinguish between paid and unpaid caregiving. Many of us have been caregivers in a less official capacity at various points in our lives—caring for children, parents, siblings, or friends during temporary or long-term health problems. Most of us have…

Three years of growing Thriving While Disabled!
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Three years of growing Thriving While Disabled!

So it’s once again time for A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. This month’s words are incorporating, breathing, smiling, stopping, and relishing. This month is the three-year anniversary of creating this blog! I can’t really believe that it’s been three years. I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve published a new post every single Friday since…

The pain of losing a great doctor
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The pain of losing a great doctor

On Tuesday, I had an appointment with a new neurologist. The neurologist I’d been seeing, Dr. Schneider, was on medical leave due to a cancer diagnosis. I’d had a telehealth appointment with Dr. Schneider in June, and he’d been a little pale and skinnier than usual (he was always a pretty slender guy), and during…

Improving your public transportation experience
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Improving your public transportation experience

I know that using public transit can feel overwhelming, but it can also become empowering to take it—it’s a way to regain at least some longer-distance mobility and allow you to go out on your own to work, play, or get medical care. Understand your transit system’s patterns Once you know where you want to…

Traveling with a disability: Using the bus
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Traveling with a disability: Using the bus

When you are managing a disabling condition, taking the bus may be your primary option for independent travel.  I feel very lucky, living in New Jersey, that I have a relatively large variety of options for traveling, but I understand that in the South and areas of the Midwest especially, trains are few and far…

Let me tell you about Hours Well Spent!
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Let me tell you about Hours Well Spent!

So it’s once again time for A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. This month’s words are uniting, defining, allocating, educating, saving. I have wanted to create this project for years, and now it’s looking like I may have found the right folks to help me make it a reality. I’m super-excited about it and want to explain…

Food can be medicine too: the power and danger of special diets
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Food can be medicine too: the power and danger of special diets

One of the things you’ll find if you start researching medical conditions is that there are often dietary suggestions made—things to add (or remove) from your diet, suggestions for what you should (or shouldn’t) eat, and suggestions for when and how to eat. It can easily become overwhelming, and it can also put your health…

Participating in discussion groups about your condition
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Participating in discussion groups about your condition

One of the groups that I’ve been active in over the years has been FND Hope‘s collection of Facebook groups on Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), the condition I was diagnosed with in 2003. There are both risks and benefits to participating in these groups, but generally, I’d argue that they’re worthwhile, especially early on and…

Self-diagnosis: perils, pitfalls, and occasionally the appropriate action
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Self-diagnosis: perils, pitfalls, and occasionally the appropriate action

While I’ve talked about how the diagnosis process is one of guessing and checking, I want to emphasize that in most cases, it’s essential to have a doctor be involved in the process. We, as laypeople, don’t have access to all the information or tools needed to be in any way sure that our interpretation…