Degenerative disc disease, disability, and activities of daily living

I'm now 1 week and 2 days out from my back injury and I'm doing much better. But I'm not completely out of the woods just yet. Still wearing a back brace and occasionally taking percocets for pain. And sitting for long periods is as bad as any disability claimant ever remarked on a 3368 (disability application).

And I now have an insight into the vacuum-sweep ADL thing. Here's what I mean: disability examiners are trained to make what are called ADL calls to claimants (and-here's a tip--sometimes such calls are made to the neighbors, friends, and relatives of claimants). What are ADL's? They are "activities of daily living". And ADL "calls" are made to discern whether or not a claimant can engage in normal daily activities, like sweeping, mopping, daily hygeine, cooking, shopping, etc.

Why is this information important? Well, t-e-c-h-n-i-c-a-l-l-y, this information should shed some light on whether or not a claimant is capable of returning to work, with the reasoning being that if you can't engage in normal daily activities, you probably can't work either (in actuality, ADL calls are total bullsh#t and are used to set claimants up...but that's another post, hopefully soon to follow).

One of the questions that an examiner will almost allllwwwwaaayyysss ask is: Can you sweep or vacuum?

I'm here to tell you that that particular question is very valid, as regards degenerative disc disease and back pain. Today, I was on my feet, wearing my back brace, and feeling much better than before. So, I thought I would grab a broom and do some light sweeping in the kitchen. No sooner did I swing that broom in one direction than I felt a "weird" unsettling sensation in my lower back. Mind you, a broom doesn't weight more than a pound or two, so there's almost no weight to manage. But there's something about the particular action of using a broom that just gets you in your lower back. So, I now completely understand why that particular question gets asked on ADL calls (however, this does nothing to change the fact that ADL calls themselves are total BS and are rarely ever done to benefit a claimant---as I said more on that later).




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