Social Security

Has anybody applied for and recieving SS after a crainiotomy and how long did it take to start recieving benefits. Just applied a few weeks ago. Thank you.

I have not had a craniotomy, but I had a stroke/bleed on March 8th. SSI was filed for the day of my bleed by the hospital. It is my understanding that you have to be disabled for a year to get the benefits. With strokes they make you wait because they wait to know how you recover before accepting the claim. I am sure they will do the same with the craniotomy. It is hard because I have been unable to work. I am working on getting back to work, and have seen a great recovery in myself. For me it came to a point in time that I had to decide if I was going to work as hard as I could to get back on my feet, or wait for a chance at financial help. I am still a high risk for another stroke. I decided to let SSI take its natural course. I am trying to get into a state run vocational rehab. If my Nero evaluation goes well disability will be informed, and I can go back to work. For me it is reassuring knowing that if something happens again I do not need to start back from the beginning. I hope this helps and is not discouraging. Each case is different!

Kevin..I am one of the very few who got my SSDI 6 months after my craniotomy. It takes most people 2 years and they have to hire a lawyer to fight for them. I've always wondered if my neurosurgen and primarly care doctor pushed it too! I wish you the best!

Thank you all. I had my surgery a year and a half ago but just recently applied a few weeks ago. 6 months? Wow that’s great! Congratulations!

I had a stroke followed by a crani in 3 months. Even though I was pregnant at the time of both and could blame most of my "mental and emotional complications" on that, they accepted my claim and I received my back-pay in like....6 or 7 months I think. It really depends on what kinds of disability you are applying for. My disability is physical and is a direct result of the bleed although something during surgery happened and I had to restart learning to walk with a second stint in rehab. In SDI terms, I got lucky to have such a stiff deficit because it meant more paperwork for my medical files which meant more proof of disability. I also had a representative from Medicaid push my case. She said calling every two weeks is incredibly helpful in getting a claim pushed forward. So I would call her every 2 weeks, she'd call the SSA case worker working on my claim. It won't take less than 5 months to get approved because your back-pay won't even start to count until 5 months after you file, but not everyone gets back-pay, that's just a bonus for waiting so long for approval.
You'll know you're close when you get a packet with mandatory appointment dates on them. One will be for a mental evaluation and one is for your regular run-of-the-mill physical. After those exam findings are sent through, your case gets reviewed by a medical examiner and then a there's one more review with a board of examiners or something[?] My rep was very informative. She talked me through everything. She recommended that I report to my doctor for anything and everything She said, "the thicker your file, the better."
I was also told not to reapply but to appeal because reapplying begins the process from the start. For some, that's years.

Kevin I was one of the ones for whom it took two years to get my benefits. I had a bleed followed by a crani. I was denied twice by SS and finally hired a lawyer. My case was pending a hearing with a judge (the last chance) when my lawyer called and told me I got my benefits. The backload of cases pending approval was quite large and my lawyer told me that they had sent some cases to independent lawyers who were given the authority to approve cases without a hearing. I was one of those cases. I would definitely start with a lawyer. They don't get paid unless you get your benefits and they can only receive a percentage. (I don't remember what that amount is but that's the law) Good luck.