Lyme Disease Disability Insurance Benefits Claim
View Disability Cases Involving Lyme Disease Disability Insurance Benefits Claim
Lyme disease can be a disabling condition
Lyme disease is an infection caused by a kind of bacterium (germ) called a spirochete. The disease is carried by deer ticks (found in the northeastern and north-central United States) and western black-legged ticks (found mostly on the Pacific Coast). These ticks can spread the disease to animals and humans through tick bites.
Ticks feed on blood by inserting their mouth parts into your skin. A full meal can take several days as the ticks body slowly swells with blood. You are most likely to be infected after a tick has been feeding for two or more days.
It is not always easy to tell if someone has Lyme disease and diagnosis can be difficult. The tests used to detect Lyme disease, the ELISA and the Western blot, have only a 60 percent chance on average of detecting the antibodies to Lyme bacteria in the blood. Because many factors can affect the incidence of Lyme antibodies, many infected patients are turned away with a false negative result. Also complicating a diagnosis, the symptoms can mimic many other conditions, such as the flu, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and as a result people with lyme disease are often misdiagnosed.
About one out of four people who get Lyme disease never develop the most common sign of the disease, a rash. That is why many people do not know they have the condition until it reaches the second or third stage, which may be weeks, months, or even years after the tick bite.
How the symptoms of lyme disease can affect you
Lyme disease spreads through the lymphatic system or the bloodstream. As it progresses, it can begin to involve the muscles, bones, joints, nervous system, and even the heart. The symptoms can be disabling to sufferers as the disease not only affects them physically but also cognitively.
One sign of Lyme disease is a rash, which may appear 3 to 30 days after the tick bite. This rash usually starts at the site of the tick bite. It may begin as a small red spot and grow larger. The center may fade, creating a “bull’s eye” or ring appearance, but this is not always the case. The rash may feel tender and warm to the touch. Other symptoms of Lyme disease in its early stage include; fever, chills, headache, fatigue, joint and muscle pain.
During the late stages of the disease it can spread to other parts of the body such as the heart and nervous system. If Lyme disease spreads to the heart, the person may feel an irregular or slow heartbeat.
The nervous system disorder caused by late-stage Lyme disease may include; trouble concentrating, changes in mood, loss of memory, changes in sleep habits, muscle weakness, Bell’s Palsy (a condition that causes the face to droop), numbness in the arms and legs, meningitis (swelling of the membranes surrounding the brain), inflammation of the knees and other large joints, fatigue, lethargy and vision changes, such as blurred vision or sensitivity to light.
If lyme disease is left untreated its symptoms will progress from mild to serious long-term disabilities. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics. Early-stage Lyme disease responds very well to treatment. In most cases, 14 to 30 days of treatment with an antibiotic kills the bacteria. Late-stage Lyme disease is also treated with antibiotics.
Contact Disability Attorneys Dell & Schaefer for a free initial consultation.
Resources
There are many valuable sources of lyme disease information available. You can also access resources over the internet such as:
- Centers For Disease Control
- American Lyme Disease Foundation
- Lyme Disease Foundation Inc.
- Lyme Disease Review
- Lyme Fighters
Request a Free Consultation
Click here or call 800-682-8331 now!
We respond the same day. We represent disability insurance claimants all over the United States.
- 12 years of disability payments paid, but CIGNA suddenly determines claimant can perform sedentary job
- A former HCBS sales manager diagnosed with lyme disease sues UNUM Life Insurance for disability claim denial
- CUNA Mutual terminates disability benefits to woman suffering from depression and lyme disease
- Standard’s decision to deny doctor’s disability benefits due to the 24-month mental/nervous limitation upheld
Disability benefits cases involving Lyme Disease:
Disability Insurance Info