COPD is short for Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. This disease is difficult for a sufferer to manage. Sufferers often find they are unable to remain employed because of this medical condition. The Social Security Disability system (SSI and SSDI) are in place to help those that become disabled manage to have a source of income and medical treatment. The challenge for a COPD disability case is proving you are disabled under the strict regulations of Social Security Disability.



Before a person with Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease seeks Social Security assistance, it is important that this person has worked with a doctor to properly treat and document this condition. Your health comes first, ensuring you are seeking medical attention on a regular and recommended basis is critical to a Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease sufferer. While at your doctor's office there are some things you can do to help better present a SSI Disability or SSDI benefits case.

Documenting a Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Disability Impairment:

Too often when a person is not awarded Social Security Disability benefits it is not because the person is not disabled. Too often a legitimate disabled people are not awarded SSI Disability or SSDI benefits because they were unable to present the Social Security Administration (SSA) with sufficient evidence and documentation to prove their disability. Presenting the SSA with proper disability documentation starts with having the right medical evidence. Getting the right medical evidence starts with having good doctor's notes.

Doctor's Notes and Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Documentation:

As previously mentioned, the most important thing for a COPD suffer to do is visit a doctor regularly. As an extension of this advice, it is also important that at these doctor visits to ensure you doctor is properly documenting your condition. For the doctor's notes to be of use to help your COPD disability case they need to be in a form that is legible to a person at the Social Security Administration that would be reviewing the notes as evidence. It might seem basic, but if the handwriting cannot be read, then the notes as evidence may be of little use. Your COPD disability attorney may recommend having these notes transcribed if needed.

A good set of legible doctor's notes does not provide a lot of value to the SSA if the content of the notes does not help document your condition. It is important you are very detailed and specific with your doctor when describing your symptoms. Make sure your doctor is writing down your symptoms in your file. For example, if you are suffering from shortness of breath you want to describe it to your doctor. Tell your doctor where you are when it happens and what you are doing when it happens. Some examples are:

- Walking across a room

- Carrying a bag of groceries

- Standing for long periods of time (how long until you experience shortness of breathe?)

Do you have chest pain? If you do, make sure you are telling your doctor and that he is recording it. How long to you need to rest to recover from the pain? This will help your doctor provide a treatment provide for your condition and will also help strengthen your disability benefits case.

Documenting your symptoms is so critical. Saying to the Social Security Administration that you have ?shortness of breath? is not as significant as presenting records from your doctor that you have shortness of breath when you stand for over 15 minutes at a time and shortness of breathe can be triggered by walking across a room.

COPD Disability Lawyer and Your Social Security Disability Benefits Claim:

A Social Security Disability lawyer can be a great resource with your Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease benefits claim. Experienced Social Security lawyers can help with Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease sufferers. A COPD disability lawyer will work with you to ensure your disability benefits claim provides the right documentation of your medical condition. These lawyers can help a person that needs to apply for disability and has had a case rejected and need to appeal for benefits.