I’m getting denied right?
My baby spent the first 5 and a half months of his life in the NICU due to a very rare metabolic disorder that caused brain, heart damage and developmental delays. I was instructed prior to his discharge by a social worker in the NICU to apply for SSI and IHSS and I thought to myself ok that will help since I haven’t been able to return to work because he has so many needs and I wouldn’t even trust another daycare to manage them even if they willingly accepted him. I applied about a week after discharge, got one of his specialist and ignorantly thought I would be getting back pay from the application date for all of the care that he requires. The caseworker assigned to my case called me earlier today to schedule an assessment for tomorrow and actually told me right away that it’s highly unlikely that I will qualify to get ihss for him because of his age and even if I do some medical care it would be considered paramedical and I would need to wait for a denial and then have that form filled out by a doctor and I just am surprised. I understand that this is my baby and nobody should pay me to take care of him however with his complex medical conditions, no daycare would probably be even qualified to watch him and I can’t return to work because I’m caring for him. Why would the hospital even suggest I apply for IHSS if the likelihood of me getting anything would be like zero? I am feeling discouraged because I’ve heard stories of some people actually getting a lot of hours for their babies and others that don’t. I’d also like to add that his condition wasn’t not expected even by the doctors, I had planned to return to work soon after I delivered him like I did with my other kids but things didn’t go as planned and I used my savings and my paid family leave to go back and forth to the hospital for almost 6 months so I really thought that I would be finally getting some help with backpay. I am sorry if I overshared I’m just really bummed and not too optimistic.