#Short Term Disability

[smoov-criminal]

any of y'all familiar with short term disability through work in the us? im starting this process and was told that if i cent go back to work after the 6 ish months i would get for short term i can transition to ssdi, but idk how that would work? any insight appreciated :>

[hachama]

The company that's supposed to be handling husbff's short term disability just... isn't, apparently. He sent an email a couple weeks ago. His case manager was on vacation. Someone else marked it read but didn't do anything with it. The case manager finally called him back today to explain what had happened, after husbff called and left a message.

We're having trouble paying bills and buying groceries, having to ask friends and family and strangers on Tumblr for help, and they're just *not answering* emails??

Tomorrow he'll be getting the paperwork so that I can talk to them.

Here's the thing people sometimes get confused about our marriage: he's the nice one. If I dislike someone, that's really nothing unusual. I'm spiky and disagreeable and judgmental. If husbff dislikes someone, they have majorly screwed up. I make deliberate overtures of friendship because I believe it is the correct thing to do. He makes friends because he happens to be in the same place as other people.

All of this to say: the case manager, the company they work for, and anyone else who has fumbled husbff's claim while I've been agonizing over how we're going to pay for daycare and groceries and rent? They have no idea what they've gotten themselves into. I am the oldest member of the current generation of Ferocious Kaplans. My great aunt is 90 some years old and weighs no more than 120lbs. She is tiny and terrifying. She doesn't get headaches because pain is afraid of her (I'm not entirely joking, she's had like one bad headache in her entire life). I'm her favorite nibling.

Tomorrow afternoon, that company is going to have answers for me, or they're going to have a serious problem.

[stealtharchaeologist]

Talked to my boss again today about working fewer hours. Asked if we should bring it up to HR. He's like, "... Oh, I think I misunderstood. I thought you meant that you wanted to use PTO?"

And I'm like, "I don't... have that much PTO..." 🫠

He kinda regained his footing after a moment and said yeah, let's talk to HR. And that he approves. Crisis maybe averted, depending on what HR says. I cited the employee handbook and the benefits guide in the email to be like, look, this is a thing y'all explicitly say I could do, please allow it. 💀

[cannabisexual]

why are insurance companies allowed to consider height and weight as determining factors for whether or not someone is eligible for short term disability coverage??? the fuck is this bullshit

[unbecoming-them]

Taking time off of work and going on short term disability to be in a shitton of therapy probably saved me this time around, even for the days I hated every moment.

It’s okay to quit your job or drop out of studies if you’re struggling with your mental health. We need to normalise taking a step back and making ourselves number one priority. Work and school will always be there but you might not be.

[ghosty206]

So as of right now I have been approved for short term disability through work but it only extends to August 26th...which, my dudes...is not a lot of time

[colorfuloddity]

Every step of dealing with disability benefits is hell

[salt-baby]

POTS Medication Vocabulary

after about the third time a doctor prescribed a medication that made my POTS drastically worse, and about three doctors visits past giving up on being an easy patient, i started asking my doctors the following questions whenever they prescribed a new long term medication:

is this medication a hypotensive? (will this medication lower my blood pressure?)

does this medication have a risk of tachycardia? (can this medication raise my heart rate?)

is this medication a diuretic? (will this medication dehydrate me?)

can this medication cause hyponatremia? (will this medication cause my body to lose salt?)

your doctor likely doesn’t know all of this off the top of their head for every medication, but they should know the most common adverse reactions. some may simply tell you they have no clue. i still think it’s worth asking to force them to consider these mechanisms.

for additional consideration:

your pharmacist likely knows the answers to these questions better than your doctor does. 

an additional list of types of drugs which should be avoided is available here, in the table on the fourth page. (note that propranolol, a beta blocker, is often prescribed for POTS but is discouraged by this paper. as someone whose taken it, it’s worth trying to see if it will improve symptoms, but didn’t for me. Additionally, these are just guidelines, and in those with, for example, both hEDS and POTS, the benefits of opiates for pain relief may be worth the risk of worsening POTS.)

regardless of what the doctor says, I always look up the FDA info sheet before taking a medication. these can be found pretty easily on google (your med + “fda pdf”), and list most of the adverse effects. I’m happy to make a post about reading these info sheets.

there’s a reason prescribing medication is left to those with years of medical training - it’s a complicated and difficult process. but oftentimes those who do this work are so overworked and burnt out, they don’t have the ability to read someone’s entire medical file, or be aware of an adverse event that only affects those with an uncommon condition. I find asking these questions forces my doctors to think about my chronic conditions, and after so many adverse events, I always check a medication for myself before taking it. 

remember that you can and should refuse to take a medication that is making your life worse or harming you. even pediatric patients have the right to refuse a medication, and often times, I’ve found nothing other than a very firm “no, I refuse” will get a doctor to consider other options. and even though its against the norm, remember that you have the right to ask your doctor why they’ve chosen that medication for you.

as always, feel free to ask questions, they make my day!

[androdragynous]

universally applicable problem solving guidelines:

are you making up a guy in your head who will be angry at you for doing a thing?

stop doing that. the imaginary person who hates you should not be a determining factor in anything. "making a guy up to be mad at you" is a step below "making a guy up to be mad at" and it's not good for you.

are you denying yourself joy because of some arbitrary goal you are making yourself reach first?

stop doing that. you are allowed to be kind to yourself without needing to earn it, and putting things off for some nebulous "better time" to do them just means you won't ever do them. live a little.

if there is nothing stopping you from doing the thing right now, do it.

there are no workarounds for this you've just gotta do it. even if it sucks. especially if it sucks. sorry.

[bitchesgetriches]

NEW POST!

Short-Term Disability Insurance Is a Waste of Money… With Two Very Specific Exceptions

Here's an excerpt:

"In preparation for this article, I read a lot of stories from people who filed short-term disability insurance claims. I was dismayed but not surprised to see just how many people experience claim rejections.

As this ProPublica report explains, the claims rejection process is so murky it could easily be mistaken for a Rainbow Brite villain. On average, 20% of claims are rejected. But it’s often wildly erratic. One company rejected 66% of claims in one year, and 7% the next. And the sole arbiter of the claim is, of course, the insurance company itself. You know: the entity that has vast resources and a compelling financial interest in denying those claims?

HI, I DON’T LIKE THIS."

Keep reading.

[sapphire-weapon]

update: i am Unwell

[smoov-criminal]

ive been stressing about this for weeks now but i finally got my short term disability paperwork filled out! they still need to send it over but i should be in the clear now, thank god. i shudder to think of how complicated it will be to eventually try and get on ssdi

[fantasy-store]

memory loss flag ?? not amnesia, specifically short term memory loss

i decided memory issue series because apparently i dont have that yet.

part 1?

Memory Loss Flag, Short Term Memory Loss Flag

Amnesia Flag, Dissociative Amnesia Flag, Emotional Amnesia Flag

no spoons for ids

transx/id and radqueers do not touch. at all.

exclusive to people with said conditions.

[stealtharchaeologist]

Struggling to get up in the morning already. Just came home from physical therapy and all I want to do is go back to bed. It's barely 3 in the afternoon. I have been making it through eight hours of work okay, but with extensive breaks, and going to bed as soon as I hit eight hours. This doesn't look good for me.

Maybe I went back to work too fast. (It was THREE WEEKS IN BED.) Maybe I should have just returned part-time. But it's just not financially feasible. My roommates took on a greater portion of the rent for this month and I can't keep doing that. Especially because we need to move soon.

I don't know what to do.

[leverage-ot3]

not to personal post but are any of y’all lawyers or knowledgeable on law?

all the other terrible, awful shit I have put up with from management aside, I recently realized that they have been underpaying me. not even just the past six months when I was promised a two dollar raise and they didn’t do it, but I realized I was being paid $21.58/hr when on my hiring letter it states I was hired at $22/hr

I did the math of what they would owe (including when they didn’t validate my promised raise) and they owe over $3,300

last week after I emailed management a few days later my boss met with me and told me they did underpay me “on accident” but that I was never going to get that money back

I now realize they have not only been underpaying me these last six months, but the almost two years I’ve worked here

I called the state legal aid org and they said they couldn’t help me and directed me to my state’s department of labor wage and hours division, and they said they can’t help either

we don’t have an HR that I can safely contact either. it’s either my boss (the owner) or her niece that does the paperwork and some admin

any advice or knowledge would be appreciated

[clowndensation]

finished applying for college. agh.