PAT,
I know you're feeling about like Job now. What else can the Big Man
dish out to you? Just guestimating your age, I could be your oldest
son. But even in that short of a time span I have seen my share of
ups and downs. I have had days where I literally did not want to get
out of bed because something else bad would happen.
If it's any consolation, things won't stay bad forever. I sometimes
think that it's good when bad things happen all at once. It gets them
out of the way and doesn't spoil it when a good thing happens.
I think you're not alone in your Social Security predicament. People
who either remember the New Deal or perhaps their parents did, think
the government can work wonders for the people. I grew up during a
much more cynical era, that the government is full of incompetent
morons who have never heard the term "budgeting money". I'm at least
30 years away from retirement. I am assuming Social Security will
provide me nothing. Unfortunately many, many, many people assumed the
government would keep its word and that Social Security would see them
through. The next decade in this country is going to be very
interesting. Millions of baby boomers are going to join the
"government payroll" all at once. I don't see how we're going to do
it.
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My age is 65 as of September 24. So
how old are you? Had I not become disabled I would still be working
for another few months and eligible to retire at 65 years and a few
months. Because I became disabled (by the goverment's harsh
defintion of same) and because _not all of_ the rules pertaining to
Social Security had been changed at the time at the age of 58, I
squeezed into the disabled person's 'special rules' at SSD. The rule
_had been_ if you became permanently disabled at 58 or older, the
government treated you as 'disabled' until age 65 and then 'on paper
only' made you fully retired at age 65. Now I understand the rules
have changed for that as well, and had my brain aneursym occurred a
few months after it did (I became effectively disabled as of 11-24-99)
I would have gotten a few months' additional squeezed out me as well.
'Permanent' disability is defined by the government as seven years.
'Disabilty' is thus defined when SSD's own payroll doctor makes it
such. SSD had a psychiatrist come here to my house in late winter,
2000 to examine my brain and associated functions. In his estimation,
my 'disability' was 'permanent'. Therefore, I would be scheduled for
another visit to have my brain examined in seven years, or 2007. But
the 'special rules' kicked in because of my age. So, in two months,
or September, 2007 I will be 'cured' on paper and become 'retired'.
I do not yet understand _why_ I came out of the coma I had been in
for more than two months. Social's doctor could not understand it
either, saying "most people with any aneurysm -- let alone a brain
aneurysm -- usually die on the spot, or certainly they expire in
their comatose state." My own doctor and therapists at Storemont Vale
Medical Center in Topeka said the same thing. They all thought I was
really sort of a curiosity. To the medically unsophisticated, an
'aneurysm' is similar to, but not identical to a 'stroke'. In the
former, a blood vessle swells up like a balloon before breaking. They
all attributed my partial paralysis to 'permanent brain damage' in
some part of my brain. Although in some ways I _have_ improved
physically (not as confused as at first, but speech still remains
slurred) I still limp around and use my motorized chair to get
around and cannot walk more than a half block or so without being
extremely winded and tired. Everyone agreed that the majority of
the brain damage I endured was as a result of the delay in getting
me into the hospital for surgery, etc. (125 mile ride in back of the
ambulance from Western Kansas over to Topeka down I-70 in evening
traffic, after a cursory examination at Geary County Hospital first.)
I suppose I am glad I lived another day to write more Editor's Notes,
but I cannot imagine why I was given that courtesy. Must have been
some reason for it. PAT]
John Mayson (john@mayson.us)