Well,

The appt went as well as could be expected. I walked in and missed the check in computer, since they'd had a number tab pull the last time I was there. The security guard came over and asked what exactly I was there for today and asked how much I could see, and I told her only what was right in front of me. She directed me back to my right to the computer to check in and was very nice and showed me the keypad to punch in the last 4 digits of my ssn. Then the little paper ticket printed that said I was checked in and the guard said that they'd call out my name. I told her that I was hard of hearing too and that I probably wouldnt hear the name. She took my last name and said she'd let me know if I didn't hear it. Then she showed me to an empty seat.

I waited for maybe 20 minutes and a deep voiced gentleman called my name. I heard it, since he had a deep voice. I got up and Honey jumped up and I told her forward. He looked at me and was like uh how do we do this. I said if you will lead, I'll tell her to follow and she'll follow you to where you want me to be. So we did and on the way back to his desk, he asked if my dog got anxious or nervous around people, as we could do the application online or over the phone if we needed to. I was like no, she'll be just fine, noticing that he was uneasy around her. But he went on and showed us to our seat, the last cubical in the corner. Honey immediately plopped down and in true style, sprawled out on her side as she likes to do, and thus putting herself under the guys desk a bit. He noticed, as she bumped him and I asked if he wanted me to move her, that it wouldnt be a problem. He half jokingly replied, "No, as long as we are housetrained, thenshe's fine." I said well, then there's no problem there!

So we started out by the guy asking me my name, SSN, an then took a bit to pull up my information in the computer. Once he got it pulled up, he said it looked like I'd applied in 2005, and I confirmed that with an affirmative. He then began to ask about our income information, which I then gave him the copies of our taxes from the prior year and the adult worksheet that I was asked to fill out and bring in. Apparently I could have done this online and it would have automatically populated for him, but the lady on the phone had said to print it and bring it with, so that's what I did.

The guy was very nice and while he did have a deep voice, I did have to ask him to repeat himself quite a bit, as he didn't speak super clearly. But it made it apparent of the difficulties that I had with hearing. We moved on then to pretty much confirming the stuff that I'd written on the worksheet, which was who my dr's were, what medications I was on, and so forth. I was very surprised, as I was really nervous that he'd ask all kinds of questions like what was on the online application, asking you to fill out to the letter, how my disability impacted me in my travels, how it kept me from working, how it kept me from doing day to day living and so forth. He didn't ask any of these questions. Then I gave him the medical records that I had that were new from the last time, though he did explain that while I could submit these, they had to request originals from the dr's that I listed. He also explained that the drs prior to my last claim, if I hadn't seen them again, are usually not considered in the new claim.

I asked what to expect from here, and he said that basically I could expect to wait, but that thier office heard about the same time I would hear if there is an approval or a denial. He then quickly said too, that if there is a denial and if I didn't agree with it, that I'd need to come back in to the office within the 60 day time window to file the appeal.

So we went from there, and he returned both of my id's, my state ID and my Guide Dog Foundation ID, and said ok, we are done, you have a great day! I then asked if he could please lead us back to the lobby, where Honey could then find the door for me. He jumped up immediately and was like Sure! He lead us to the lobby, through the crowd, and went on to the door to hold it open for us and told us to have a Great day! on the way out. So hope and pray that doing it in person, he made some notes or something, and that it did some good and I'll be approved. The wait begins and I'm praying that we can avoid the appeals process, as we JUST had an article in the front page of the Indianapolis Star talking about SSDI and the appeals process. Apparently in IN, it takes 3 YEARS to get a hearing date for an appeal. *sigh* But the process is started!