Thank-you all for all of the wonderful words that you had to say about me. I have loved it here for 6 years now almost & kind of hide out now & then when Dave is having his ups & downs b/c I think you might be tired of hearing about it. He was so kind to me today. We didn't have any money so we filled the car with gas & picked up our friends & took a road trip to Apollo Beach where the power plant is that the manatees stay at during the winter. It was such a surprise. He wouldn't say where we were going. Said friends picked up breakfast, lunch, & a t-shirt of the manatees. Much to my father's dismay, I forgot to take a camera. I have been so afraid that they would be completely extinct before I got over there to see them. We saw about 15. It was a lovely time. BJ~Have a safe trip. I know that you & Besh will have a great time together. Yesterday was the horse race over in Tampa. I wanted to be there so bad b/c they are going to have a horse racing in the KY Derby. Sun King is the name of the horse. Marci~Carrot cake is my dessert too. LOL Thanks for the beautiful gif. Gretchen & Tikanis~Great to see you posting. Gretchen~DS proposed around here & that was the last that I have seen of him in FL. LOL I have to go to TX if I want to see them. Shout out to everyone! Sending love your way & hoping that your spring started out as good as mine! (It was 79 degrees here!) Patti :)

Ah ha! I think I see where our misunderstanding lies. I see anything that is in the GROSS INCOME part of my paycheck as income. That is all taxed, except for what I may decide to put into a 401k, IRA, etc or into a tax-deferred saving plan for medical savings accounts or childcare accounts. So the gross income amount has my tax-deferred retirement savings and my tax-deferred health or childcare subtracted out. Then I pay income tax on what is left. Then they take out Social Security tax, and Medicare tax. You want the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax taken out, then the remaining income taxed. I, on the other hand, contend that the money you are using to pay your SS and Medicare tax IS income and is taxed like income. You disagree and think it should be treated like the tax-deferred savings for retirement, health care, and childcare. I still contend that these tax-deferred savings are a new development and have nothing to do with what money you pay your SS and Medicare tax on. Before about 1980, they never existed! The income tax was figured on your income, then you used part of that income to pay SS tax, Medicare tax, state income tax, sales tax, user fees, whatever. Actually, self-employed folks do not have the convenience of having SS and Medicare taxes taken out of our checks and must pay them ourselves. Employed folks get their employers to pay half of SS tax. I don't, I pay the whole amount of SS and Medicare taxes when I pay my taxes each year. I do get to deduct half of the SS and Medicare tax that I pay out of my income (so technically I do not have to pay income tax on the half of it that I pay for myself that others who have employers have paid for them. I pay $x extra in tax because I am self employed, and get all of 20% of that back by not paying taxes on it - but I am still out the other 80% that I had to pay - that employed folks had their employers pay for them.) Anyhow, we are paying income tax on our income, then using that income nanoseconds later to pay SS and Medicare taxes. And later to pay State and local taxes. And buy whatever else we buy. We do use our taxed income to pay for state income tax and to pay for real estate taxes. If you do the long form (most working-class folks do not earn enough to do so), you then can deduct these taxes from your income on Schedule A. Again, you are getting back maybe 15 - 30% of that money you paid in these taxes by deducting them from your income. Sales tax, building permits, licensing fees, all kinds of taxes do not get this special deductibility. So we are constantly paying taxes with money that we already paid income tax on. In a few special circumstances we may deduct these taxes from our income and thereby reclaim a portion of that money, but by no means are all taxes given this special treatment. Again, since fairness lies in the eye of the beholder, there is no way to construct a tax system that all would find fair. You don't like to pay taxes with money that was already taxed for income tax. Okay, I guess that this is as good a gripe as anyone has. As Albert Ellis, the great psychiatrist says, "Who said life is fair?"

I got only SSI because the judge ruled that my disability started more than 5 years after I quit working. I quit working in 1996. The judge ruled that my disability didn't start until 2002. So it was ruled that my disability had started more than 5 years after I last had a job. This 5 year limit made me inelegible for disability benifits. But I was still elegible for SSI. SSI is based on household income. So Cindy can only make a certain amount before my SSI check is reduced. SSI is a maximum of $521 per month. If Cindy makes over $600 in a month, then that amount is reduced for us. The $600 amount is derived from a formula that takes into account household expenses such as rent, utilities, child support, etc. They base each month's check on what household income was last year. Or what it is projected to be. And we have to periodically send in Cindy's paycheck stubs. If they estimate a month high, and Cindy's actual income is lower, they will make it up. This month, based on last years income, I only get a little over $300. But Cindy will still make under $600. So sometime in the next few months they will send us the difference between this month's check and $521. You SSI and disability checks are retroactive. The payments will be for the period of time from the day your disability started. So if it takes 2 years to go thru the process of applying, you will get the payments for all that time back to when you became disabled. If you get approved you will get a really big backpay check at the beginning. This will be the back pay. They split mine into two checks. If you used a lawyer to help with your claim, he can only charge up to 25% of the backpay. You will get a letter from SS telling you how much he can charge you. I was told it is very hard to get approved for a physical disability. The questions for them is "is there any job you can do". They consider if you can sit at a desk and work then you can get a job. The standard was even higher for when I applied to have my student loans discharged because of disability. They told me unless you are comatose you can forget it. I was denied and I am going to see what other options I have. Pooh Bear

Did you get your MRI? It sounds like things are progressing nicely for you. I just had my 2nd hearing on Nov. 3rd & I think it went well. Looking at my denial letter from the April hearing, things that were focused on were 1) I do laundry 2) I food shop 3) I drive my daughter to school. When I went back this time I brought with me a page I made in Word, explaining my laundry area showing I have a "dirty clothes" basket on a chair, so that I do not have to bend. I also highlighted the dryer which is set up on a base so that I do not have to bend. On top of the dryer is the clean clothes basket- clothes get folded & go straight into it. To the right of the dryer are hangers, any shirts coming out of the dryer get hung. If you food shop, be sure to note if your food shopping consists of picking up 2 or 3 bags worth of groceries to get you by till someone can go with you. Also note that if you do food shop, how often you go (me- every 10 to 14 days). If you food shop & get employees to load soda or heavy items in your cart, or if they unload your cart into your car for you. At this hearing I also made sure they knew that it was incorrectly noted that I drive my daughter to school & that I drive her to the bus stop which is around the corner. Your symptoms mimic mine. I've got a computer desk, my monitor is to the left, a wireless keyboard & mouse. If you can picture this, I have 2 chairs in front of the desk, 1 my high back computer chair, the other a fold up chair I keep my feet on. A heating pad is on the computer chair. I get up, turn on the heat, then sit down & put my feet up. My keyboard is on my lap. I'll sit here for close to 2 hours before I'm able to get up & do anything. The heating pad has been a life-saver. Where are your spasms? What are you doing for them? I've found that the heat plus trigger points helped with those. I used to be really bad, so much so that my legs would shake like jello. I keep crutches just in case. We found out by accident after I had a discography (5 needles) that showed no results (Dr did it wrong) I was in worse shape due to him hitting a nerve. My neuro prescribed methylprednisolen dose pak, let me tell you, that was the thing that stopped the bad spasms. It was like this magic pill, after that, going back for trigger points every 4 months or so instead of every month. I'm also taking Zanaflex at night with Skelaxin as needed during the day. If you want to email me from my member page, let me know where your pain is. If it is lower back, down to the toes like me I've got some great photos I found on the web that I put into a word file detailing my treatment, medications (current & tried) as well as a description of my pain along with the photographs which I edited to show exactly where my pain is. I just uploaded 2 of my edited pics- & . I've also got some muscle views, side spine views. If you notice, each pic has different color pain lines- they each mean something different like stabbing, shooting pain, numbness, etc. Took me about a week to find the various pics, it was not easy. Good luck