u/Shay_scott20

***Excuse TF OUT OF ME!!?…(Vent of a exhausted single mom, 30 years old , chronic illness depleted superwomen )***

**How do you become too sick for unemployment… but not sick enough for disability?**
I’m honestly at a loss, and with my Washington unemployment hearing coming up, I’m hoping someone here has been through something similar.
This isn’t just me venting. I’m genuinely trying to understand how these systems are supposed to work together.
📍 **May 20**25
I was diagnosed with **Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (GPA)**, a rare autoimmune disease.

My employer approved my medical leave.
Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave approved my claim.
Everything started exactly the way it was supposed to.
📍 **August 20**25
Guardian requested my employer’s portion of my Long-Term Disability (LTD) paperwork.
Without the employer section, my claim couldn’t move forward.
📍 **September–December 20**25
This is where everything started falling apart.
I repeatedly contacted HR asking them to complete the paperwork.
I have the Teams messages.
I have the emails.
I have the texts.
My doctor completed their portion on **October 1, 2025**.
Mine was already submitted.
The only thing missing was my employer’s section.
While I waited…
• I received eviction notices.
• My car entered repossession.
• My utilities were close to being shut off.
• I applied for rental assistance and every assistance program I could find.
• I went months without LTD payments because my claim couldn’t move forward.

In December, I emailed HR explaining that I had already lost my car, had gone months without income, and urgently needed the paperwork completed.
HR replied:
**“I’m on it.”**
But nothing changed.

📍 **January 20**26
My rheumatologist documented that I should remain out of work until **January 20, 2026**, with the expectation that I’d return afterward.
A few days later I received a meeting invite titled:
**“RETURN TO WORK ZOOM.”**
I genuinely thought it was my return-to-work meeting.
Instead, I was terminated.
Then, about **10 days after firing me**, my employer completed the LTD paperwork I’d been requesting for months.
That timing has never made sense to me.

**\*Then everything contradicted itself\***

Washington Unemployment essentially determined I wasn’t able and available for work during the period at issue.
Social Security Disability later determined I wasn’t disabled enough to qualify.
So…where exactly was I supposed to fit?
Too sick to qualify for unemployment.
Not sick enough to qualify for disability.
Meanwhile, I was still undergoing treatment, trying to keep a
roof over my daughter’s head, and watching every financial safety net disappear.

I have documentation for all of this:
Medical records
Doctor’s work restrictions
HR emails
Teams messages
Guardian paperwork
Termination documents

Benefit letters
I’m not posting this because I want sympathy.
I’m posting because I’m exhausted, frustrated, and trying to understand if anyone else has experienced something similar.

If you’ve gone through a delayed Long-Term Disability claim, had an employer hold up paperwork, or dealt with Washington unemployment while on medical leave, I’d really appreciate hearing what happened in your case.
Did your hearing go in your favor?
Is there anything you wish you’d presented differently?
At this point, I’m just trying to make sense of a system that seems to have left me stuck in the middle.

I swear I’m a pretty smart young woman, and I am still in complete disbelief.

My unemployment was DENIED because I was supposedly “too sick to work.”

My disability was also DENIED because I was supposedly “not sick enough to not work.”

READ THAT AGAIN…

How am I supposed to heal when I’m stuck in a constant state of fight-or-flight, fighting systems instead of focusing on recovery?

For nearly two years, I’ve kept a roof over my daughter and my head. For one of those years, I had no income at all. Her father contributes $12 a month, and every trip to Seattle for my specialists—gas, lodging, parking, meals, medications—has come completely out of my own pocket.

I’m exhausted. Physically. Mentally. Financially.

I’m not asking for a free ride. I’m asking for the chance to recover without having to prove my worth or my illness over and over again.

No one should be told they’re too sick to work while also being told they’re not sick enough to qualify for disability.

Somewhere in the middle of those two decisions is where people like me are expected to survive.

And that’s exactly where the system is failing.

Healing isn’t impossible- but for myself as a single mom I can’t rest, I have a little girl who depends on me. But being expected to heal while fighting to survive every single day? That feels impossible.

AM I CRAZY?

I swear I’m a pretty smart young woman, and I am still in complete disbelief.

My unemployment was DENIED because I was supposedly “too sick to work.”

My disability was also DENIED because I was supposedly “not sick enough to not work.”

READ THAT AGAIN…

How am I supposed to heal when I’m stuck in a constant state of fight-or-flight, fighting systems instead of focusing on recovery?

For nearly two years, I’ve kept a roof over my daughter and my head. For one of those years, I had no income at all. Her father contributes $12 a month, and every trip to Seattle for my specialists—gas, lodging, parking, meals, medications—has come completely out of my own pocket.

I’m exhausted. Physically. Mentally. Financially.

I’m not asking for a free ride. I’m asking for the chance to recover without having to prove my worth or my illness over and over again.

No one should be told they’re too sick to work while also being told they’re not sick enough to qualify for disability.

Somewhere in the middle of those two decisions is where people like me are expected to survive.

And that’s exactly where the system is failing.

Healing isn’t impossible- but for myself as a single mom I can’t rest, I have a little girl who depends on me. But being expected to heal while fighting to survive every single day? That feels impossible.

AM I CRAZY?

Im 29 years old.

I WAS an ATTENTIVE,ADVENTURES,HANDS ON LOVING single mom of a beautiful 7 year old.

The 2 of us were THRIVING.

I loved my career in Grassroots Non-profits; I found purpose and fulfillment in community engagement.

Then I started noticing strange things occurring with my body.

•Nose bleeds

•Weight loss

•Fatigue

•Tremors

•BRAIN FOG

•EXTREME PANIC

On May 29th,2025.. My life would change; the life I created for my daughter would change forever;

I was officially diagnosis with GPA and was informed after a biopsy that I was chronically ill with a rare autoimmune disease (about 1 in 100,000 people get it). I continued to work until the disease started to eat away my sinus, septum, and tried to work its way to my kidneys- all while deteriorating my articulation and ability to be ACTIVE & ATTENTIVE. It was weird. HONESTLY..

It still is.

(Long story short) After being terminated while on medical leave — simply for needing an extension — I immediately lost my insurance. Coverage gone. COBRA not an option. Overnight, I lost a full care team I spent 10 months building: specialists, coordinated treatment plans, everything.

Now?

My disease is being managed by me.

All medications stopped. No refills. No bridge prescriptions. No transition planning. No handoff to new providers.

I’m expected to somehow navigate, coordinate, and rebuild an entire specialty care team on my own — while actively sick — for a complex autoimmune condition that most doctors rarely see.

Call me crazy, but I’m overwhelmed.

And honestly? I’m angry.

This isn’t just a “me” problem. This is a systemic failure.

Insurance companies and healthcare facilities need to be held accountable for safe transfer of care. You can’t just drop chronically ill patients into the void and call it policy. There should be mandated continuity: bridge coverage, temporary medication access, actual coordination between systems.

What’s happening right now feels like medical abandonment.

People with chronic and rare diseases don’t get to pause their illness while paperwork catches up. We don’t get a grace period while we rebuild teams.Our bodies don’t wait.

I’m tired — but this has to change.

No one managing a life-threatening condition should be left without meds, without doctors, and without support because of insurance technicalities.

If you’ve experienced this too, you’re not alone.

And if anyone in policy or healthcare ever wonders why patients are burned out — this is why.

Thanks for letting me vent. I’m fighting through it, but damn… we deserve better.