I was recently approved with a fully favorable result. It was a long rough road, though. I fought for 2 years and was finally approved after taking it to the Administrative Law Judge hearing level.
I was also only approved for 2 years, after which I have to be checked out again. But that's ok. I got 2 years worth of back pay from both SSI and SSD for me, and 1 year of back pay for SSI for my 2 boys who live with me.
Unfortunately, you have to be pretty sick for quite some time in spite of proper treatment with Crohn's. My ordeal started in 2006 with my second abcess. It never fully healed and turned into scar tissue, which turned into a partial obstruction, and despite Remicaide and pred. and a positive colonoscopy just a month before, progressed into a strangulated bowel obstruction. The surgery caused structural damage leading to adhesive disease. My bowels started sticking to my ovaries and uterus, and I was resected again less than a year after my 1st surgery. Since then, I have had mulitple abcesses (hospitalized for a week and a half, fed by IV, and 2 blood transfusions). There is some debate on exactly how it happened, either structural damage from the surgery or one of the larger abcesses not healing properly, but I now have a large pocket with a fistula leading into my small intestine, which causes a great deal of pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. And by a great deal.. I mean I wake up every morning with an 8 on the pain scale, vomit after meal no matter what or much I eat, and have diarrhea 35 to 40 times a day, often not making it to a bathroom (at least 4 times a week I have accidents). I also have nutritional deficiencies, fatigue, syncopy (low blood pressure and low potassium), low grade fevers.. the list goes on.
In short, I finally got approved when they realized I would likely not find a job to accomodate my needs. It was also stated I MUST follow doctors orders because they felt I could reasonably be expected to get better following proper treatment. Which means if I fail to show up for check ups, get my blood work done, don't fill my scripts, etc. They can cut me off.
