[mark-tremblay]

I am retired currently retired at 54 and happy that I did so after working since 1 was 15. After an attorney who served on one of the board’s I was on convinced me that I could retire due to CF and that she would represent me dropped me four weeks later because she said she couldn’t win the case and that she was in over her head I felt devastated. Because ,based on her direction, I had already retired from a 30 year career with the State so there was no turning back. Despite the overwhelming feelings of abandonment and betrayal I immediately decided to hire a top notch law firm (Fields) to take my SSDI case and my private disability case which they won without a hitch in the first round with no appeal. Consequently despite the horrible representation I received from the first law firm I am immensely grateful I retired when I did and more happy I found Fields Law Firm to speedily win not only my SSDI case but also my private insurance case so that now I have the time to do all my treatments every day and workout regularly so that my lung function has gone up and I have time to focus on my not-for-profit CF Vests 4 Life!  My advice is to be very careful selecting a law firm if you’re intent on getting SSDI or some other disability benefit when you retire and be leery of believing anyone in the CF legal space who promises you a bill of goods no matter how tied to the disease community they are instead reach out to a major disability law firm (Fields is one) even it costs a higher percentage of your initial benefit award.  Getting lifetime benefits quickly without extended appeals delays is worth it even if the firm takes a percentage of your initial award money because it will enable to transition to retirement faster and easier.  One final bit of advice if you are considering retirement examine deeply who you are as human being as opposed to human being.  If you are ready to truly explore who you are as human being then it may be time to jump into a new vision of who you are in retirement!