You should be covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Eligible employees are entitled to:
Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
... a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
Thanks. We actually have unlimited flex time off instead of paid vacation time. It's great for taking a week or two vacation but I'
FMLA would protect my job but I can't afford to go weeks without pay. I'm a single parent of a special needs kid with no consistent support for him if I can't be there.
I have taken loans, hardship withdrawals, and regular withdrawals from my IRA and 401k accounts that might be an option. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to get time off for treatment than to pay for it...
I would highly recommend that you find a RO that will perform either 20 or 5 Radiation treatments instead of 40.
It is 100% about the added revenue when 40 treatments are suggested. So more cost to you and your provider, more time off for you, more inconvenient trips to the clinic for you and more $ in your RO’s pocket.
If you are close to a teaching hospital, that is your best bet.
Thanks. The recommended number of sessions for my treatment is between 20-25 (4.5 - 5 weeks). The location and associated commute time is likely the more challenging logistic. If I had to go into Philly every day that would be a minimum 2hrs travel time in addition to the treatment time.
Fortunately there are satellite locations closer since I'm not doing proton beam. I still anticpate needing about 1.5hrs for travel.
I think you may be over estimating the time off that you will need. A good friend of mine went through 25 beam sessions and one dose of ADT. He was able to ride his bicycle the 6 miles to and from the treatment site and did not need any additional time off other than a nap now and again. Treatment sessions were done in 30 minutes on a regular basis. If your treatment works the same way you should only need about 3 hours off (travel and treatment) for each session. I'm not sure which type of brachytherapy you are having but I had two sessions of HDRB and needed a full day off for each session (5 hours travel; 6 hours in hospital; recuperation until the following morning). Best of luck to you!
I'm curious about the brachytherapy on top of the IMRT. I thought it would be one or the other. My experience was very similar to what CarverD explained. In my case, I was given a 4 month injection of Lupron prior to starting IMRT. My radiation was 27 doses. The first 16 were aimed at the prostate and the two seminal vesicles. The last 11 were only the prostate. I'm retired so I didn't have to worry about time off from work. I drove myself to and from the center and once there, I was usually done in a half hour which included waiting time. The radiation procedure itself took all of 10 minutes. They wanted me to have a full bladder so I would start drinking water at home and then all the way there during the drive. I usually made a dash to the restroom when the radiation was complete so I didn't pee myself.
If you can schedule the Brachy procedures for a Friday you'll only have to take two Fridays off and will be ready for work on Monday. The IMRT sessions are very short, biggest time sink is travel to the site so the closer the better but can be done over lunch hour.
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