Sickle Cell Disease 

Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder which can cause severe anemia.  Blockages occur in tiny blood vessels thereby causing painful incidents or crises from time to time. It is the anemia that causes the limitations interfering with a person’s ability to work.  If the painful events occur frequently enough so that a person is out of work for long periods of time, then sickle cell will be considered a severe impairment preventing a person from working. Sickle cell can also increase a person’s risk for infection. It can create an enlarged heart, produce fevers, arthritis, skin ulcers around the ankles, abdominal pain, acute chest syndrome associated with fever, chest pain, chronic damage to the lungs, chronic damage to the kidneys, bleeding, eye problems and many other medical conditions.  A doctor’s opinion of the severity of sickle cell disease will go a long ways in proving the case before a Social Security judge.  The doctor’s opinion needs to be supported by medical treatment notes showing the long-term progression of the disease.