- Joined
- Jun 19, 2006
- Messages
- 4,135
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Denton, TX
- First Name
- Don
- Last Name
- Davis
Anybody have a status update on Brenda?
RB
From Brian's most recent update.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brendathorn
CaringBridge said:Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork
Jan 22, 2014 9:28pm
She is currently on Short Term Disability from Cigna and that will end in March. We've started the process with their Long Term Disability department and all that paperwork was mailed yesterday.
A company called Allsup works for Cigna and they become our agents in the Social Security Disability process. Cigna pays them to do this because the sooner SSDI kicks in, the sooner Cigna can cut back on how much they pay us. If Brenda gets on SSDI and stays there for a two year period she will automatically become eligible for Medicare, regardless of her age at that time. She will then convert from SSDI to regular Social Security benefits at her normal retirement age. A benefit of being on SSDI is that SS will "freeze" her earnings up to that point, so that the gap in earnings from now until retirement age will not count against her.
Tomorrow morning I will drive to the SS office in Mesa and drop off her paperwork. I prefer to do that versus mailing it because I can get them to stamp MY copies of everything I turn in to them, so in the event that they say they didn't get something... nope, here it is.
I've communicated with her SS Claims manager via email several times already and he has been very responsive to my questions and concerns. A govt employee that actually does care? How about that?
Today she was on her own to get to therapy and back home again. She knew the coming home driver from last week so that made it even better for her. I followed along in the car just in case there were any issues, but nothing.
She had an episode getting from the car service to the front door, just like when I brought her home from rehab. She got all wobbly and weak so I got her to the bench we have next to the house and sat her down. She gets cold very easily and tends to wear heavy clothes and today she had on a heavy sweater, but it was probably close to 80 degrees by the time she got out of the car. I think she just tends to overheat very quickly and she will need to remember to shed the sweater/hoodie before walking to the house. She's totally on her own for Friday so we'll see what happens then.
Her brother George and SIL Patsy are coming in tomorrow afternoon, so perhaps one of them will want to go to therapy with her on Friday? I have to return to work this coming Sunday so cross your fingers that all goes well when I'm not here.
Until later...