Part Seven: The end of corporate leadership training for me

I went back to work a week after Rachel died and tried to resume my work.  I ached all the time.  The fibro fog made teaching difficult as I struggled for words that would not come to me.  I consulted my doctor and found out that the stress from the caregiving and Rachael's death in combination with the physical trama from the rollover accident had made my fibromyalgia a full blown fact.
I talked to my boss and told her I was considering quitting because I was unable to do all the traveling and shlepping books, etc. that had previously been trying were now nearly impossible. It was then that she said the only knid thing I had ever heard from her in over 3 years.  She suggested I go to my doctor and get him to fill out disability paperwork.
The doctor agreed that I should go on full-time disability.  I was astonded.  I asked him if I could work until the end of the month. He said no, you start NOW.  So, he filled out the paperwork and I called my boss. The next day I cleared out my office and that was that.
The disability insurance from work required me to file for social security disability so I did that too.
The social security disability was denied. Not surprised, I hired a lawyer and about three months later the social security disability went into effect.
So, I was getting a check from the disability insurance from work and one from social security.  Things were not to bad financially.  The pain and symptoms from the fibromyalgia were the same.  They were bad.
Let me say here that the social security attorney wrote it up as fibromyalgia AND depression. Depression is one of the symptoms of fibromyalgia.  The social security board rarely approves fibromyalgia so my attorney added the depression to get the approval.  I am bipolar B and I have suffered with depression and been on medication for that for a very long time.  The FMS just had made it worse.
Two and a half years later, the work disability sent me a letter stating that they only paid on "menta;" conditions for 2 and half years so my benefits were stopped from them.  Two appeals later they still said that the FMS would not stand alone as disability and the payments stopped for good from them, cutting my income by more than half.
The appeals process is through only their doctors and their panel.  My primary care doctor had noted my records that I did a lot of gardening when I had been in to see him about a cut that was infected on my finger after potting a six pack of zinnias.  The disability insurance company said that if I could garden, I could work.  I had to take it on the chin, as they say, because I had no recourse otherwise. That was 2005.
So now I live on the social security check only.  My son and daughter-in-law  and their kids moved in with me in 2008 because I had used all my savings and could not keep up the mortgage, lights, etc.
I totally believe that the disability insurance company used a loop hole to cheat me out of my money.  I had paid extra while I worked to have that insurance and should have recieved a check every month until I was 65.  They just flat out stole from me.