Do I give it up?
Do I give it up?
Edit* read the rules
36 y.o. by the end of the year and I have my 40 work credits but I was still denied as a 100% P&T veteran. Explanation said "You may not be able to do the kind of work you have in the past but you should still be able to work even if the pay is less".
My most recent job let me go due to my disability hindering my performance at work back in 2024. I have not been employed since. They wanted me to sign a paper to step down but I refused and they basically sent my last check in the mail, removed me from the group chat and stopped scheduling me after that.
To recap, I remember not being able to button my pants one morning so I told a sgt. who sent me to medical, I spent weeks in the hospital having test ran and trying to figure out what was wrong. I lost all fine motor skills and grip strength, I couldn't dial a phone number or hold eating utensils ect. They did MRI's EMG's EKG's all the test. The dr. Said it could be early signs of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. Well they sent me back to my unit and eventually I was medically discharged from the Army and told to move somewhere warm because cold weather triggered my symptoms.
Being from West Virginia I had dealt with cold weather before so this was all new to me. I'm kicked out of the army and sent back home. I slowly gain the fine motor skills back by playing video games. I get my hands working again and even met my future roommate playing online. The guy says he can get me a job driving for a fedex contractor. I pack my car and leave WV for Florida. Florida is fantastic. I got a friend from WV who moved to Tampa so I crash at his place and drive to Davenport for the FedEx interview. Met the guy I played the game with and he does get me the job at FedEx. I'm making the best money I've ever made but the labor is brutal. I bump into the shelf in the truck and my entire body starts zinging and pulsating. Instant pain sends me to the floor for a moment. Now I'm starting to figure out what else triggers the symptoms. It starts to affect me regularly now, riding with the door or windows open on the FedEx truck makes my arms and legs ache from the cold air. Holding the steering wheel my hands ache and cramp from being in the same position. I bump into a doorframe or shelf and that entire side of my body goes numb.
I seek medical treatment, I get affiliated with Veterans affairs. They get me to 10% disability and I finally get a diagnosis so I can start understanding what's going on with my body. Charcot Marie tooth disease is a degenerative neuropathy where the protective casing around your nerves gets weaker over time. That's the general basis of the condition. So now I'm building my treatment history and getting seen for these symptoms but the treatment is just pain management. I'm getting acupuncture which by far was the best medicine I've received to date, besides that I was provided wrist splints/braces to keep my wrist from bending because it puts pressure on the nerves in my hands.
FedEx becomes too physical for me to handle so I have to step away after peak season and this is when I started to pursue my BA in digital media/game design. I get a part time job selling sneakers and athletic apparel. The work is less demanding than FedEx and I'm earning employee of the quarter accolades and being asked about leadership roles and management opportunities. I tell them I can't at the moment because I'm a full time student and this goes on until I graduate in 2023 but by this time my body is still on a decline and they end up asking me to sign the resignation paperwork.
I end up getting rear ended coming from a VA dr appointment one morning and that totaled my car and further injured me.
Fast forward to today I've been out of work for 2 years, I'm married with 1 child and I can't seem to get called in for an interview or approved for disability.
Just got off the phone with Morgan and Morgan, they declined to represent me during the appeal process and I mainly think it's because I considered myself self employed as an indie game developer but I have yet to make a single dollar from it.
Looking at some of the VA paperwork it says the following
"Degenerative changes at L3-L4, L4-L5 and L5-S1 with superimposed broad-based disc protrusion with extrusion at L4-L5 with effacement of bilateral lateral recess, worse left than right.
Effacement of the left L5 nerve root within the lateral recess.
Please correlate for left L5 radiculopathy."
So between the CMT and the radiculopathy my arms and legs are either numb, aching, pinching, stabbing, or zinging at any given moment. I'm now 100% P&T but I can't seem to get hired because I'm being up front about my disability during the application process. It's very ironic that I went to school to be an artist but I can barely color or draw for a few moments before my hands hurt.
TLDR: I needed to vent