I need help before i am unable to help myself

[Poopiemonster]

Hi

I need help with a letter explaining why my PTSD causes me to be "different"

I live in a small town and my husband and I are involved in a frivolous lawsuit for $20k. The person doing this lives 2,000 miles away and is doing this just to entertain themselves. We have a lawyer but he is a small town lawyer and doesn't understand anything about PTSD at all. We think he thinks we are making this all up. I was put on disability and given both my SSD and a state disability retirement 10 years ago when I was barely 40 years old. I don't know if I was lucky or I'm so messed up but I didn't have to provide any doctors letters or letters from anyone to get approved for disability/retirement. I just applied over the phone, sent medical records and I had a meeting with the SSD doctors and I was approved less than a week later. I'm so sorry for those of you who are trying to get your disability approved. If everyone only knew what we live with on a daily basis. I'm fortunate I don't have to work anymore and my husband is a farmer so he is near me at all times. Besides the PTSD I have other medical conditions that make it almost impossible for me to leave the house. Everything has gotten so bad that my husband wants to not put me thru this and just pay the $20k. If we could afford to I would say ok let's do it. We can't if the court orders that we have to pay that if could cost us the farm. The farm has been in my husbands family for 4 generations. He is an only child and he lost both of his parents within 8 months of each other unexpectedly. I think he has PTSD too from everything he has been thru with me and his parents. I was supposed to go for a deposition and was only told about it the night before and was told "not to bring my service dog". Needless to say I could not go the next morning. My husband went for his and explained why I wasn't there. Now they want a doctor note. My doctor would write one but he is really busy he has 1200 patients and he is only one man. If that isn't enough his mother just died. He said just write the note and he would sign it for me. I don't know what to write. I only leave my house for medical appointments. I maybe go out once a month anywhere else if that and only with my husband AND my service dog. I really need someone with medical experience to write something out explaining my physical and mental conditions for my Dr. to sign. This has me so upset every time I even try to do the research myself I start going downhill fast and I wind up sitting staring at the computer screen 20+ hours unable to do anything. I'd even be willing to pay someone to do the research and write it. I just can't and I feel so useless....... I just want to get past this so we can move forward with our lives. I used to do Internet research as part of my job and I can't do this to help myself and my husband.

Any suggestions?

 

[Deleted member 541]

Have your husband write/type out the damn thing and your Dr sign it. Problem solved....

 

[Justmehere]

Do you have the documentation that verifies the need for the service dog? If so, you could simply provide that.

Then it’s on them for telling you not to bring the service dog.

If you don’t have that documentation, then it’s good to get it anyhow. If you are in the US, you can contact the ADA technical assistance center in your area and they can give you wording for such a letter.

The letter does not need to get into the nature of the disabilties but simply verify that you do have a disabilty that requires the use of a service dog. You legally can and should leave out the type of disabilty for this type of letter. The letter I use is two sentences long. Simple, short, to the point - just says justmehere “has a qualified disabilty under the ADA and she require the use of a service dog. Please allow access.” Then there is the contact info for the doctor if someone needs more info (but the doc can’t release it without my authorization.)

That type of letter is very short, doesn’t take medical expertise to write, would be easy for your doc to sign.

It would give validation from a doctor about the reason you missed the deposition.

All they asked for was a doctor’s note about missing the deposition. They don’t need a detailed medical history to address the issue.

You do not need anything that goes into any greater detail for them to have verification they should have allowed you to bring the service dog. Don’t write up anything more and help them go into a fishing expedition unless your attorney asks for it or the court orders it. It could massively backfire.

Keep it simple and it will work better.

Hang in there!

 

[CrossingMyLine]

The advice that justmehere gave sounds good - keep it simple and succinct. I really wanted to just give you some validation, support, and some hope. The ADA laws have quite a bit of weight, so if you wield them properly you should be able to get accommodations for this process. You and your husband take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. It sounds trite but - this, too, shall pass. x