According to the National Institutes of Health, musculoskeletal disorders are among the most disabling and costly to treat medical impairments. In a recent study, the NIH determined that in the year studied, there were almost 264 million lost workdays to back and neck pain alone. These types of impairments (including chronic pain syndrome, history of spinal fusion, lumbar radiculopathy, gout, carpal tunnel syndrome, and degenerative disc or degenerative joint diseases) most obviously cause chronic pain but also affect the ability to move the affected body parts, or to stand, walk, or sit for more than short periods. People with chronic pain usually have poor sleep and, therefore, are often tired throughout the day. It is also typical that many of the worst symptoms lessen if someone gets frequent rest throughout the day. Treatment plans vary significantly from person to person but usually begin with conservative measures such as medication management, physical and occupational therapy, and chiropractic treatments; if unsuccessful, pain management programs and/or the injection of stronger pain medications are attempted. Surgery (often more than one) can be necessary when all else fails. And, sometimes, the treatments themselves cause additional side effects that further limit a person’s ability to function, including the danger of addiction when opioid types of pain medications are necessary.

Most musculoskeletal disorders do not affect a person the same way every day; it is very typical for a person with this kind of medical condition to have “good days and bad days,” days where functioning does not seem very affected at all and other days when it’s a struggle even to do basic daily activities.

A disabling condition does not need to be disabling every day to support a finding that a person is unable to work because being able to work means doing it daily, week after week, on a regular and continuous basis.