I am new - have been burying my head in the sand!

Hello, I hope you can help me!

I have been on IB for some 7 years due to Myasthenia Gravis with no medicals when they decided to change me over and assess me for ESA. I was a little silly as when I first went through the IB process it was fairly simple (from what I remember!). In 2010 I developed further complications with my health which at present have been diagnosed as fibromyalgia (though I am not sure myself but that's another story). I filled in the questionnaire thing honestly though in hindsight not honestly enough (answering 'it varies' for a lot of question when reading through this site I should have ticked 'no' to lots of the activities). I did tick no to the first few questions regarding walking and standing. At the time of filling in the questionnaire I was in and out of hospital while they tried to find out what was the matter with me (other than the myasthenia gravis lol).

Anyhow, this was in October 2011! I was 7 months pregnant at the time also. I sent this form back and heard nothing until the start of 2012 and after I had had my baby. The medical took place on 22nd March 2012. My first question is - Am I trying to appeal the decision based on my health on the date of the questionnaire or the date of the medical (5 months difference) and a huge difference in my health as it would seem to have been the birth of my second son which triggered a big decline in my health and subsequent diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

I shant bore you with the medical - the 'doctor' basically lied through her teeth. Every single thing I told her she seems to have either totally ignored or just changed to suit herself. My doctor wrote me a letter which I sent off along with my appeal letter but this doesn't seem to have interested them at all. I was crying in pain while trying to do things she requested - but she has just noted everything is fine other than I am teary!

I have now got a date for the tribunal as the 10th of April. I don't know where to start with it all really. Firstly I am wondering what date I am meant to be proving that I am too ill to work? There will have been 18 months between me first sending off the questionnaire and this appeal taking place (speedy!). The decision maker confirmed I had 0 points on the 4th of May 2012.

My other question is I am going to ask my doctor to write another letter but not sure exactly what she can say that might make any difference? She has already said that there is no way I can go to work and of course has been writing sick notes for me for months so that I have been getting the assessment rate of ESA.

Should I write a statement and send it to the tribunal, literally saying everything I feel hasn't been taken into account, has been twisted, lied about (in relation to the examiner at the medical) etc?

Other than that any help would be appreciated, particularly if you are someone else suffering from 'invisible' illnesses going through this.

Hi elizabeth,

I see that gordon is going to deal with your questions but I am going to answer your other post here -

All posts on this site are -pre-moderated before they appear. How long this takes depends entirely on how many (voluntary) moderators are on-line and how busy the site it. I know that there are only 2 of us here today. There is no need to post again as your query will appear eventually