Illness Unravels Military Wife

 

Obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can be a time-consuming and stressful experience. Two out of every three applicants initially are denied. Multiple sclerosis put an end to the active life of Patty Linton. The stress mounted when her husband was deployed to Iraq and she was left to care for the family after a move to a location that aggravated her condition. Read how Allsup helped to ease the financial burdens of Mrs. Linton.

 

 

 

Tucson, Arizona — Patty Linton thrived on staying busy.

 

She started working at age 12 as a candy striper at her local hospital. At 16, she moved on to the neighborhood five-and-dime store.

 

By 21, she was managing a picture framing store in her native Greensboro, N.C.

 

All the while, she was wrestling with even more demanding work — managing her faltering health. She suffered from dizzy spells, searing headaches and strange muscle twitches. Crushing fatigue would render her unable to concentrate on the simplest of tasks.

 

Doctors all but shrugged it off. Mrs. Linton, now 44, kept quiet and battled through the symptoms for years.

 

The fight changed dramatically in 1995.

 

Ms. Linton was working on her computer at the frame shop when she suddenly couldn’t see the monitor. Panicked, she rushed to her optometrist. He didn’t spot a vision problem and suggested she call a neurologist.

 

Specialists conducted a battery of tests and found scarring in her brain, a tell-tale sign of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. MS affects women more than men and typically is diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 40.

 

Ms. Linton was 25. She was crushed by the diagnosis.

 

The first two years were especially tough, but she soon reached a point where symptoms would strike only once or twice a year. Her doctors later diagnosed her with relapsing-remitting MS.

 

She continued working and ultimately moved to Phoenix to take a property management job. There were residual symptoms such as muscle weakness, but otherwise the warm, dry climate did wonders for her health. Unfortunately, that equilibrium didn’t last.

 

Mrs. Linton married an active duty U.S. solider in 2004 and left the desert for Fort Lewis, Washington, where her new husband had just been reassigned. Now a military wife with three stepchildren to raise, Mrs. Linton was able to transfer her property management job to a complex near the sprawling Army base.

 

But the stress of family and work coupled with a harsher climate and her husband’s deployment to Iraq took a toll. She spent three weeks in the hospital and was diagnosed with asthma, chronic arthritis and interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease.

 

She soldiered on for three years until it all unraveled again after her husband deployed to Iraq for a second time. Her worsening MS symptoms and the demands of family made work unbearable. Mrs. Linton quit her job that spring and sank into depression.

 

The family was racking up thousands of dollars in debt to cope with her lost income. Mrs. Linton’s mother soon urged her to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, or SSDI.

 

SSDI is a federal insurance program overseen by the Social Security Administration (SSA). It provides monthly benefits to people under full retirement age (65 or older) who can no longer work because of a disability.

 

Mrs. Linton went online to research SSDI and found Allsup, the nation’s leading non-attorney SSDI representation company. Founded in 1984, the Illinois-based firm has helped more than 150,000 people across the country receive the SSDI benefits they paid for throughout their working lives.

 

Mrs. Linton, who barely had the energy to get out of bed most days, knew she couldn’t navigate the process alone. She contacted Allsup in March 2007 and asked for help.

 

Her Allsup representatives handled all of the work, collecting medical information from physicians and building a case for her SSDI award. She moved to Maryland in the winter of that year. Even with Allsup’s help, Mrs. Linton’s initial application for benefits and subsequent disability appeal were denied. Crushed, but not defeated, Mrs. Linton once again appealed the decision.

 

In January 2009, the Army granted Mrs. Linton’s husband a compassionate reassignment to leave Maryland and return to Arizona.

 

All the while, Allsup representatives were redoubling their efforts and building a stronger case for Mrs. Linton’s third push for benefits, which would come in the form of a hearing before an administrative law judge.

 

It took more than a year to get a court date in Arizona, but Mrs. Linton and her Allsup representative finally went before a judge in July 2010.

 

The judge examined Mrs. Linton’s comprehensive medical file that Allsup had assembled and awarded her benefits on the spot. Mrs. Linton wept in the courtroom.

 

With her SSDI award, Mrs. Linton and her family were able to whittle down their debt. Despite the long and sometimes difficult wait, neither she nor her Allsup representatives gave up hope.

 

“I’m very thankful for the knowledge and experience that Allsup has because they were able to coach me and stand by me and do everything that needed to be done,” Mrs. Linton said. “They took the weight off me of having to do all that paperwork and having that worry and that stress. They took that load, and that was a saving grace. Had it been up to just me, I could not have done it.”