Arizona Woman Struggles With Severe Health Problems

Obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can be a time-consuming and stressful experience. Two out of every three applicants initially are denied. For years, Shirleen Rodriguez coped with side effects from her gastric bypass surgery, which included painful stomach problems, difficult bowel movements and vomiting. Mrs. Rodriguez’s painful and debilitating conditions kept her from being employed. After a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, an attorney friend introduced her to Allsup. Company representatives gave her hope and found a way to help her family. Read her story here.

 

By Concepcion Vigil

 

Mesa, Arizona— Shirleen Rodriguez carries a cell phone photo of herself. Her face is bruised and there's swelling around her eyes.

 

It's a constant reminder of the hardships she endured for more than five years. First, being diagnosed with a debilitating disease and second, the battle she fought to receive the benefits from a system she paid into her adult life.

 

Severe health problems started shortly after Mrs. Rodriguez had gastric bypass surgery in 2004. She began having trouble with bowel movements and painful stomach problems. Working as a property manager was difficult because many days the stomach pains were just too excruciating. “I would get so sick. I would just double over in pain,” she said.

 

Sometimes, Mrs. Rodriguez would pass out. The picture of her bruised face was taken after one of those falls. Mrs. Rodriguez points to scars on her wrists, another daily reminder of the falls.

 

One day she was taken to the hospital by ambulance because she couldn't stop vomiting for three days. Vomiting had additional side effects and Mrs. Rodriguez had been suffering with it since her gastric bypass surgery. She lost several of her teeth because stomach acids eroded the enamel. Prior to this, she never had a cavity.

 

She spent 18 days in the hospital getting her electrolytes back to where they should be. Afterwards, Mrs. Rodriguez discovered that she had been through a life-threatening situation.

 

It took awhile for doctors to diagnose her with Crohn's disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease that usually affects the intestines. Mrs. Rodriguez, now 47, is part of a small percentage of Crohn's patients who develop a skin rash, in her case from her ankle to her knee.

 

Unable to continue her job managing mobile homes and apartments, Mrs. Rodriguez decided that applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits was her last option. She knew she would most likely be denied benefits the first time. The Social Security Administration denies about two-thirds of initial SSDI applications.

 

“I was upset because of the severity of what I was going through. Once I was rejected [in 2006], I knew it was going to be a long play out at that point,” Mrs. Rodriguez said. “I talked to an attorney who was a friend. She introduced me to Allsup.”

 

Allsup is a nationwide provider of Social Security disability. The company, based in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, has helped more than 150,000 people with disabilities from all over the United States receive more than $12 billion in entitled SSDI and Medicare benefits.

 

Founded in 1984, Allsup employs more than 700 professionals who deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible.

 

Mrs. Rodriguez applied for disability benefits on her own in 2006. By 2007, her disability prevented her from working all together. In February 2008, she called Allsup.

 

Mrs. Rodriguez credits Allsup employees for supporting her through the long process of applying for Social Security disability benefits.

 

“There was so much depression and frustration,” she said.

 

Sometimes the Allsup representative on the phone would just listen to her cry, Mrs. Rodriguez said. “No matter what I called for, or if they needed me to fill out something, they were always so encouraging.”

 

She not only had to cope with the debilitating disease; Mrs. Rodriguez also had to face a grim life with no income. She and her husband went from being a two-income family to surviving on one paycheck.

 

Her eyes fill with tears as she described having her car repossessed and having to move her family from a five-bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment in a different city. Her teenage son moved in with friends because he wanted to finish high school with his classmates.

 

Mrs. Rodriguez started to cut back on her medications. Instead of taking her prescribed eight pills per day, she would only take two to make them last longer.

 

At times she felt like giving up.

 

“You just get tired of the struggle,” she said. “It's unbelievable what you have to go through. [SSA officials] were refusing to give me my own money.”

 

In December 2009, three years after her initial application, Mrs. Rodriguez and her Allsup representative went before an administrative law judge at a hearing in Phoenix. In most cases, the judge will take the case under consideration and the applicant is mailed the decision.

 

In Mrs. Rodriguez's case, the judge ruled on the spot.

 

“I was awarded right then and there because he couldn't believe it,” she said.

 

The judge told Mrs. Rodriguez that he saw no reason why her application had been denied so many times.

 

The judge also awarded Mrs. Rodriguez back pay Social Security disability benefits for the months she was owed. That settlement still took a few months for her to receive, but now she finally feels like she’s getting her life back in order.

 

 “If it wasn't for Allsup, I wouldn't have ever received my disability [benefits].”