In order to get anything decent from SSD, you have to have worked a certain number of quarters and paid into the system. Then I think you get a percentage of whatever your last salary was, or an average of all your salaries. Something like that. All I know is, I went from making over 2,000 a month, to getting 550 from SSD. So if you can keep working, do it. Your life will be easier. If you truly can't do it any longer, that's when you apply. Get your T, pdoc, and hopefully gp on your side. A history of recent hospitalizations helps.