Radiculopathy and Social Security Disability

Good morning or good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Bishop. I am the owner and one of the attorneys at the Bishop Law Firm located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Bishop Law Firm represents social security disability clients in North Carolina and we do not get paid unless we This video is going to discuss disability benefits for radiculopathy. It can be cervical radiculopathy or it can be lumbar radiculopathy. So starting off, what is radiculopathy? The first thing that we need to discuss is the spine. The spine is broken into three essential sections. The cervical spine, which are the top seven vertebrae, the thoracic spine, which are the next or middle 12 vertebrae, and the lumbar spine, which is the lower five vertebrae before the sacrum. Cervical radiculopathy would involve nerves around your top seven vertebrae. Lumbar radiculopathy would involve the nerves around your lower five vertebrae. Whenever there is damage or disturbance to the nerves around the cervical or lumbar vertebrae, you can have radiculopathy. Radiculopathy can be pain, numbness, loss of sensation. In the instance of cervical radiculopathy in your hands, your arms, your shoulders. In the case of lumbar radiculopathy, it can go down both legs, through your hips, to your knees, and unfortunately all the way to your toes. Cervical radiculopathy and lumbar radiculopathy can be caused by trauma, degenerative changes to your spine, essentially anything that puts damage or pressure on the nerve root. What evidence is needed to demonstrate to the Social Security Administration that you have radiculopathy? The first thing that the Social Security Administration requires is some form of objective evidence like an x-ray, an MRI, a CT scan, or even an EMG that demonstrates you have nerve root compression in either the cervical or the lumbar spine. In addition to those objective pieces of evidence, you also are going to need your subjective pieces of evidence. This would be the pain, the numbness, the limitation of motion, the motor loss, the tingling, the type of feelings that you experience on a daily basis from your radiculopathy. The Social Security Administration can evaluate radiculopathy in different ways depending on if it's cervical radiculopathy or lumbar radiculopathy. One of those ways is under Listing 104, Disorders of the Spine. Listing 104 requires a compromise of a nerve root and evidence of pain, limitation of motion, motor loss, arachnoid itis, or pseudo-claudication As I have discussed in this article, arachnoid itis and pseudo-claudication are not symptoms that I have seen abundantly in my practice, but I have definitely seen, you know, severe cases of limitation of motion, severe sensation loss, difficulty turning the head, difficulty using the hands, difficulties with walking and just ambulating because the pain is radiating from your back into your legs and feet or from your neck into your shoulders and your hands. The real issue, as with all social security disability cases, is severity. How severe is your lumbar or cervical radiculopathy? If you've gotten to the point where you cannot lift with your hands because of sensation loss or you're in a lot of pain or you're unable to walk or stand for a certain amount of time, these are definite signs to social security that you cannot work because of your radiculopathy. In addition to Listing 104, the Social Security Administration can also use the GRIDs, which formally are known as the Medical Vocational Guidelines. The GRIDs really help people who are 50 and older and maybe haven't attained a high level of education, but the more educated you are and the younger you are, the more difficult it is to be found disabled based on the Some of the questions that I ask my clients with radiculopathy during a social security disability hearing are very much designed to illustrate what they go through on a daily basis. You know, starting off, I like to ask my clients if they have pain in their body, where do they have pain? Is there anything that makes that pain better? Is there anything that makes that pain worse? How long can they stand? How long can they sit? How far can they walk? How much weight can they lift? And in the case of clients with radiculopathy, I like to go through all the different methods that my clients have tried to alleviate their pain, you know, from pain medications to physical therapy to injections, pain simulators. Have they had surgery? Did the doctor tell them that surgery was not an option? You know, what has your doctor told you the next step is for your radiculopathy? Have any of the therapies that you've tried so far, have they helped reduce your radicular pain? Depending on the cause of your cervical or lumbar radiculopathy, certain type of therapies, including injections or even a fusion, may be able to eliminate your pain. But in many of my clients' cases, they've already progressed to the point that they've had surgery for their radiculopathy and unfortunately, they failed the back surgery and they continue to have radicular symptoms even years after they've already had a fusion or other type of, you know, spinal surgery. My advice to people with radiculopathy, whether it's lumbar or cervical, is to do everything that you can to try to get well and if you still fail to get well enough to go back to work, this is persuasive evidence to bring to the Social Security Administration. You know, your honor, my client has done this, this, this, this, and this and they still continue to have the same problems. They still continue to be unable to work despite trying all these things. I mean, if you've watched any of my videos before, you know my mantra is, effort counts for a lot. Thank you for watching this video. If you have any questions, you can visit us at disabilitylawfirmnc.com. Have a good day.