SS & retraining benefits for fibro

I'm so glad I found this site. I'm in California and have been diagnosed with fibro for 2 years, but have had interstitial cystitis dx for 11 years, now known as painful bladder syndrome a part of fibro syndrome & almost daily migraines. Now the difficult part, I'm a chiropractor and after being told to cut back hours, only work in summer (not feasible), how can you be a chiro with fibro, my MD has told me to start the paperwork for retraining.  They won't say I'm disabled.  I have burning in my hands and feet, Raynaud's syndrome, pain in trigger points and joints, can't sleep and one day of heavy exertion can take me several days or weeks to recover from, besides being a human barometer.  Has anyone gone through the re-training process with social security?  I have difficulty writing reports or doing data entry typing, mousing due to hand pain and after one day of treating patients it takes me 2 days to recover.  I live in Northern California near Oregon.  The irony, I treat a lot of fibro patients, but none are working, all are disabled.  I'd like to retrain as a psychologist or licensed social worker so I could still help people.  ANY IDEAS out there?  Has anyone else gone thru this?   Thanks,  sharihurtsalot

[Gina04]

You don't have to have an MD who says you're disabled in order to be approved for Social Security.  I would go online to Social Security's site and start the application for SSDI.  If you are turned down the first time (most people are), file the appeal.  If you appeal after the second time they turn you down, there is a very good chance you will be approved.  You can start without a lawyer and get a lawyer during the appeals if you feel you need one or you can get a lawyer from the start.  If you really feel like you can't work, I would not do the retraining.  If you think you can handle it and want to retrain, that would be fine too.  But, I wouldn't go with retraining just because my MD said I wasn't disabled.