Workers Comp Degenerative Disc Disease in the low back or lumbar spine is the focus of our work injury law practice. We represent people who have significant low back pain and limitations which prevent them from doing physical labor like they used to. Our job to is prove that the physical job duties of their work contributed to their lumbar degenerative disc disease. The workers compensation insurance company and the IME or independent medical examiner like to deny workers comp claims saying its pre-existing or unrelated to the job. While every case is different and there are no guarantees, our track record speaks for itself. The following blogs will discuss degenerative disc disease so people can better understand how their condition is related to the work they do or did.
The intervertebral discs in the lower spine are commonly blamed for low back pain. Yet low back pain has many possible anatomical causes and doctors aren’t always certain why symptoms occur, the precipitating or aggravating factor is often physical job duties.
Also a word of caution. Like all our blogs, this is not medical advice. I’m an attorney whose practice involves medicine, especially the spine, but I am not a doctor. This information is about how the law applies to certain medical conditions and a person’s legal options so its necessary for me to understand and write about medical issues. You should only get medical advice from your doctor, not the internet.
That said, keep in mind that a diagnosis of ‘degenerative disc disease’ in most cases does not denote an acute or emergent condition. A doctor may describe how changes in the discs can lead to back pain. When talking about these changes, your doctor may use the terms degeneration or degenerative disc disease. Although the parts of the spine do change with time and in some sense degenerate, this does not mean the spine is deteriorating and that you are headed for future pain and problems. These terms are simply a starting point for describing what occurs in the spine over time, and how the changes may explain the symptoms people feel. Very generally speaking, all of us past the age of a 27 or so have degenerative disc disease in our spines to one degree or another, its called normal aging. What we are concerned with here is a more than normal advanced condition causing more than typical pain and some physical limitations or restrictions. If this advanced condition is caused, in part, by your job duties then you have a claim for workers compensation benefits.
McCormick Law Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin gets the best workers compensation attorney results when the facts and medical opinions line up.
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