Leukemia and Receiving Social Security Disability Benefits

The word “leukemia” comes from two Greek words meaning “white” and “blood”. Leukemia is a cancer of your blood or bone marrow. It is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood cells. These are usually white blood cells (leukocytes).

Leukemia is a broad term that covers a spectrum of diseases. In turn, it is part of an even broader group of diseases called hematological neoplasms. These are types of cancer that affect your blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes. These types of cancer are intimately connected through your immune system. A disease that affects one of these three will often affect the others as well.

Over 200,000 people are estimated to be living with some form of leukemia in the United States. Over 40,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Leukemia is pathologically and clinically subdivided into several large groups. The first division is between its acute and chronic forms:

• Acute leukemia is characterized by the rapid increase of immature blood cells.
• Chronic leukemia is characterized by an excessive build up of relatively mature, but still abnormal blood cells. This usually takes months or years to happen.

Leukemia is additionally divided according to which kind of blood cell is affected. This divides leukemia into lymphocytic or myelogenous types:

• Lymphocytic – This type of leukemia begins in a type of bone marrow cell that usually goes on to form lymphocytes.
• Myelogenous – This type of leukemia begins in a type of bone marrow cell that usually goes on to form red blood cells, some other types of whit cells and platelets.

There are several different effects that you may experience depending on the type of leukemia that you have. However, there are some common effects that are caused by leukemia. These include:

• Loss of weight or appetite
• Tiny red spots in your skin
• Night sweats
• Chills or fever
• Swollen lymph nodes
• An enlarged spleen or liver
• Ongoing weakness and fatigue
• Infections that happen often
• Bruising or bleeding easily
• Tenderness or pain with your bones
• Shortness of breath during physical activity.

You or a loved one may have leukemia. This may be the cause of your disability.

As a result, you or your loved one may need assistance. You may need financial help.

Have you or your loved one applied for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by leukemia? Were you or your loved one denied?

You or your loved one may decide to appeal the denial by the Social Security Administration. If you do, remember this. You or your loved one may need a disability lawyer like the one at socialsecurityhome.com to assist you in this process. This is true because people represented by a disability attorney are approved more often than those people without a lawyer.

Do not hesitate. Contact the disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.

Tags: Bone marrow, Cancer, Leukemia, social security administration, United States, White blood cell

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 10:29 am and is filed under Cancer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.