Denise;
Sorry to here you are in so much pain, and hoping you will get relief soon. As to your employer-- It is very unwise for them to deny you unpaid leave for treatment and scans. Under the ADA, cancer is a disability, and employers are required to make reasonable accommodations. There is much guidance from the EEOC to employers that they must make accommodation that may include flexible paid or unpaid leave for people with disabilities.
Satan is wrong! Send her these links and if she does not agree I'd look for a lawyer.
http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/6-8-11/east.cfm
"The case law is consistent. The Supreme Court has recognized that that accommodations may include breaks for medical treatment,
US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391, 397–398 (2002), and every circuit to consider the issue recognizes that leave can be a reasonable accommodation.
See, e.g., Criado v. IBM Corp., 145 F.3d 437, 443 (1st Cir.1998); Walton v. Mental Health Ass’n. of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 168 F.3d 661, 671 (3d Cir. 1999) (“unpaid leave supplementing regular sick and personal days might, under other facts, represent a reasonable accommodation,” but leave requested here was not reasonable); Rodgers v. Lehman, 869 F.2d 253, 259 (4th Cir.1989) (decided under ยง 501 of the Rehabilitation Act); Cehrs v. Northeast Ohio Alzheimer’s Research Center, 155 F.3d 775, 782–783 (6th Cir. 1998) (medical leave of absence, paid or unpaid, may be reasonable accommodation); Haschmann v. Time Warner Entm’t Co., 151 F.3d 591, 601 (7th Cir.1998); Brannon v. Luco Mop Co., 521 F.3d 843, 849 (8th Cir. 2008); Nunes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 164 F.3d 1243, 1247 (9th Cir. 1999); Smith v. Diffee Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Inc., 298 F.3d 955, 967 (10th Cir. 2002); Taylor v. Rice, 451 F.3d 898, 910 (D.C. Cir. 2006). See also Graves v. Finch Pruyn & Co., Inc., 457 F.3d 181, 185 n.5 (2d Cir. 2006) (noting that “[m]ost other circuits and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have concluded that, in some circumstances, an unpaid leave of absence can be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.”).
"But the ADA’s accommodation obligation may require deviation from company policy. As the Supreme Court has stated:
By definition any special accommodation requires the employer to treat an employee with a disability differently, i.e., preferentially. And the fact that the difference in treatment violates an employer’s disability-neutral rule cannot by itself place the accommodation beyond the Act’s potential reach. … Were that not so, the reasonable accommodation provision could not accomplish its intended objective .... Neutral break-from-work rules [for instance] would automatically prevent the accommodation of an individual who needs additional breaks from work, perhaps to permit medical visits."
"
good luck
kk1