How is Crohns Disease not a Disability

Crohn's itself is not an automatic disability the way that blindness might be. The reason is because there are many different levels of severity with Crohn's. I had a coworker who also has Crohn's. She and I were both teachers. She only got sick the initial time, had an colonoscopy, and now manages her Crohn's with just 50 mg of Imuran. She hasn't had a single complication or problem since. This makes working very easy for her.

I, on the other hand, have been hospitalized 30 times in the last 3.5 years with numerous surgeries. I even had to have a blood transfusion because my bleeding was so out of control. I couldn't even walk up the stairs. Because of my combination of conditions and the severity of them, I was accepted for disability 2 months after my first application was submitted.

I know this disease is rough, but they look at everything on a case by case basis. Are you only on enticort and cholestyramine to try to manage your Crohn's? What other medications have you tried? Bowel resection alone will not help keep you in remission - you MUST be on a maintenance med. I think that's what the disability doctor was trying to tell you. Not that you'll be perfectly healthy, but that you can lead a relatively normal life if you can get medication to help manage your Crohn's. If you haven't tried any yet, then they won't accept you for disability.

I have been on a couple tv shows as a lead

You can't say something like that without saying what the TV shows were... >_>

Serious note, Crohn's is a fluctuating, not well understood illness. Most people can continue to work with it, but people who don't have Crohn's don't know how brutal it can get. It's not just the bathroom trips, as annoying as those can be: it's the pain, the abscesses/fistulas, the strictures, the fatigue, the fevers, the anaemia, the malabsorption, the weight loss, the surgeries, the side-effects from meds, etc.

It also seems like you have severe disease if it came back that quickly after surgery: most people get a few years of remission before it comes back. Entocort is a steroid and you can't stay on that long-term. I think you'll need to go on a biological med like Remicade, to be honest. Hopefully the biologics will work for you, but if they don't, you'll certainly have a much stronger case for disability... =/

You might want to consider getting help from a disability attorney when you appeal. Do you have the support and backing from your GI?

I agree with the above posters that you may need a better treatment plan than Entocort if your disease is that severe.

I am lucky in that I am self employed. I only work part time, and when I try to increase hours I get too fatigued and seem to then get sick. But, for me working keeps me sane. I am not that sick and I'd be lost with out my job. I don't think all of us need or should be granted disability....I know I would not qualify and I think it should be a case by case basis. Just having a Crohn's diagnosis should not automatically qualify someone for disability.

It's recognized as a disability under the American's With Disabilities Act. You mentioned filing for state disability, which may have different criteria.

I got on disability for my crohn's. I had crohnic diarrhea and crippling pain.

Eventually I stopped seeing my doctors and got much better self-treating and they cut my disability because I wasn't seeing doctors but I was about to call to cancel it anyway.