My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: North Carolina.
In December of last year I had to go to the local Emergency Room due to severe pain in my left foot. X-rays were done and it turns out I have a bone spur that is growing on top of my foot and scraping a nerve cluster. After several false starts I finally found an excellent surgeon in mid-February. He set me up for reconstructive surgery on May 4th. My employer, a large bank, requested I have FMLA paperwork filed. The doctor's office charged me a fee for the service and repeatedly kept trying to fax the documentation, but my HR department said they never got it. Finally after about 3 weeks I had the doctor fax it directly to me. However, after I finally got the paperwork in, the doctor's office rescheduled my surgery for April 30th. When I advised my supervisor at work he told me that I would need to have a new FMLA packet filled out by the doctor's office with the change. He also advised that, even though the doctor marked me as needing intermittent absences, my company would not allow me to claim FMLA for any absences relating to my foot dated between December when I went to the ER and February 15, the first visit I had with my surgeon, unless the doctor's office would backdate my absences. The doctor's office told me that marking my absences as intermittent and ongoing should have been enough to satisfy my employer.
My employer is threatening me with termination for excessive absences due to this issue, and the emergency room told me they do not file FMLA paperwork and I would need to speak to my primary doctor. My primary doctor won't backdate prior to me meeting with him for the first time. What options do I have in this situation, and is there any way that I can get out of this situation with my job and surgery intact? Given the last time, it took three weeks for my employer to accept my paperwork, I don't relish trying to make the doctor's office re-submit everything from scratch. This doesn't seem right to me, but I have searched and searched and had no luck researching the rules on FMLA leave date changes. Thank you so much for any help you can provide for this crazy, confusing situation.

