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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful inflammatory disease, which, in the absence of appropriate treatment, can lead to joint destruction and disability. Rheumatic disease is progressive and typically affects the articular and extra-articular joint structures, resulting in pain, disability and mortality in people who are afflicted with the disease.
Persistent Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Typically, persistent inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis leads to erosive joint damage and functional impairment in the vast majority of people afflicted with the terrible disease. The joints normally affected are the joints in the fingers, the hands, the wrists, and the small joints of the feet.
Sometimes, the shoulders, elbows, knees, ankles, and joints can also be affected. Except for the neck, the spine is normally unaffected. Other non-specific symptoms that often appear are depression, fatigue (which can be particularly troublesome) and malaise.
Rheumatoid arthritis can cause a limited range of motion due to swelling, stiffness, and pain. Other symptoms can include joint locking and joint deformity.
Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause nodules of tissue under the skin to develop, as well as itchy and dry skin, skin rashes, skin ulcers, and mouth sores.
Dry eyes and blurred vision are not uncommon, as well as respiratory disorders and the increased risk of heart disease, since inflammation affects the heart and can eventually harden the arteries.
My disability adjuster thinks that rheumatoid arthritis is the same as osteoarthritis. What’s the difference?
There is a significant difference.
With OA, your joint cartilage, lining, ligaments, and bone are all affected by deterioration. The surrounding bones slowly rub together when the cartilage begins to break down due to injury or illness. The pain builds up over time and feels worse after joint use. In addition, osteoarthritis only affects the particular joint because the joint cartilage is worn away due to injury or overuse.
Rheumatoid arthritis is much different – it’s a chronic inflammation of the joints. The degeneration caused by RA tends to affect the smaller joints in the body first, namely the joints in the fingers, hands, and feet. The damage then spreads to other major joints in the body. Its early symptoms may appear as imprecise pain with a slow appearance without classic joint swelling or tenderness symptoms.
These symptoms are usually relatively non-specific and can persist for a long time. A person may gradually experience morning joint stiffness and redness for more than 30 minutes or arthritis-type pain in the small joints of the hands or feet with ongoing swelling and tenderness.
The pain is normally symmetrical—meaning on both sides of the body—whereas with osteoarthritis, the pain and disability affect the joint, causing the pain.
How long does Rheumatoid Arthritis last?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive disease – meaning that the disease will become more aggressive over time. Typically, the inflammation will cause serious damage to the affected joints because of progressive joint swelling and/or persistent damage to the cartilage and bone.
Also, the chronic inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis can cause major problems with your lungs, eyes and cardiovascular system (heart). For example, suppose you suffer prolonged and chronic inflammation in the lungs. In that case, it can lead to pulmonary fibrosis, which makes breathing very hard – and negatively affects your overall quality of life.
Although many medications and therapies are designed to decrease underlying inflammation inside the joint, there is no known cure. Quite often, people who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis can go through periods of long remissions (where symptoms disappear for a long while) and have symptoms that come and go. In contrast, others suffer progressive and ongoing inflammation that never stops.
In all cases, however, inflammation wears away joint cartilage, causing bones to become unstable and rub together. Eventually, you might notice deformities as the bones move around within the joint. Pain, swelling, and loss of motion will progressively occur, and joint replacement surgery might become an option.
Rheumatoid Arthritis can impact a person’s ability to work
If you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and suffer from severe progressive symptoms, there is no doubt that your daily life and work life can be negatively affected.
It may be quite difficult for a person who chronically suffers from a reduced range of motion, fatigue, chronic pain, reduced mobility or overall reduced function to adhere to any type of regular work schedule.
The disease often will cause functional limitations for a person – such as the inability to walk, walk for long, sit for long, reach overhead, with your overall mobility, stooping, crouching, kneeling, etc. – which can lead to problems in most occupations, either physical or sedentary. Things like typing on a keyboard or using a stapler can irritate, leading to exhausting pain over time. A teacher may not be able to get up in the morning and make it to school at 8:00 a.m. if he or she has progressive morning stiffness and joint swelling/pain.
In addition, autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis require constant treatment—even if symptoms aren’t constant. A person can experience inconsistent, debilitating, and unpredictable flare-ups. One day, a person’s joints can feel pretty good, while the next, swelling and pain can cause a person to be unable to get out of bed. Work can, in time, become very difficult.
Have you been denied or cut off your long-term disability benefits?
If you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and have been denied or cut off from long-term disability benefits, you may have a claim against your long-term disability insurance carrier if you cannot complete the substantial duties of your employment.
Many claimants are also denied long-term disability benefits at the two-year mark, otherwise called the change of definition or the COD. At this point in the claim, most policies change from your “own occupation” to “any occupation,” meaning that you must be disabled from doing the duties of any job for which you are reasonably trained by education, training and experience.
Whether you qualify for long-term disability benefits depends on the nature and severity of your work-related restrictions.
Many times, insurance carriers will have their internet or hire doctors to perform a so-called “independent medical examination,” which will more often than not find that you can work in some occupation.
Whatever your denial situation is, you must contact a disability lawyer to help you get your monthly benefits back on track.
Contact Hamilton’s disability lawyers for a free, confidential consultation.
Our Hamilton disability lawyers work with the best experts in the field—from autoimmune experts to pain experts to orthopedic surgeons and vocational and psychiatric experts. We understand that rheumatoid arthritis is a very serious autoimmune disease, and your individual or group long-term disability insurance company should no doubt protect your financial future by providing you with the disability benefits you deserve.
If you have been denied or cut off your long-term disability benefits, call our Hamilton disability lawyers at 905-333-8888 or contact us online today. We can help with your individual or group long-term disability claim and get your benefits back on track.
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