Winning your Social Security Disability case based on Crohn’s Disease or another inflammatory bowel condition  means proving to the Social Security Administration that you cannot reliably perform even a simple, unskilled entry level type of job because of your symptoms or medication side effects.  In a Crohn’s case, winning arguments usually relate to your reliability as well as to pain and weakness caused by this disease.

There are two types of arguments that I use when presenting a Crohn’s & Colitis case to a Social Security judge.  Sometimes I present one or the other, and sometimes I present both – it depends on the nature and quality of the medical and vocational evidence in your file as well as my evaluation as to how you will perform as a witness.

One argument involves meeting the listing for inflammatory bowel disease, and looks primarily to the medical documentation in your file.  The second argument considers your capacity to perform work and it looks more broadly at the medical evidence – including for example the side effects of medications, the impact of other medical or mental health issues and your doctor’s opinion about various work-like activities that you might have to perform.  This second argument is called a “functional capacity” argument.

Either presentation assumes that you have had and are undergoing regular medical evaluation and treatment and that your condition would cause you to take unscheduled breaks during the course of a workday and/or miss multiple days of work per month.

Crohn’s and Colitis Disability Case Study #1 – 54 year old male who was housekeeping supervisor of downtown hotel

Crohn’s and Colitis Disability Case Study #2 – 34 year old female with remote history of radical surgery and placement of ostomy bag, and more recent flareup that prevented work for closed period of disability