buffettgirl
The whole tag thing, so 1990's internet.
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2008
The way we handle it (17 year old son with medtronic pump and dexcom cgm) is that first I give my son the option ; take your pump off and ask for hand screening of the pump. That should always be an option with TSA but, I generally suggest to people that we don't get in that habit because you should not have to remove a medical device. We don't want to give TSA the idea that they can suggest it. They can't. But we should be able to.
Then, we watch to see if the body scanner or metal detector is in use. If it's the metal detector, we don't say anything. 9 times out of 10 nothing happens and we go about our business. no alarms, no bells, no screaming TSA agents (we put the dexcom receiver in one of the carry on bags on the belt). If it bings, he says "oh, I do have an insulin pump" and he gets swabbed.
If the body scanner is in use, we tell the TSA agent that he cannot use the full body scanner as his pump manufacturer says not to put the pump through. Then we tell them that he is CAN go through the metal detector or a pat down, or both. We try to make sure they understand we're perfectly happy to comply, just not use the full body scanner. Almost every time, it's a full pat down. He's done it so many times that he doesn't even care anymore. When we load the belt we typically send me first, him second and dh last. That way I can begin collecting our stuff and then stand with our son while he gets his pat down. The past year, our son has been working on speaking up for himself at the airport and that's effing HUGE (pardon my language) because it means we've given him the tools to do it on his own.
Then, we watch to see if the body scanner or metal detector is in use. If it's the metal detector, we don't say anything. 9 times out of 10 nothing happens and we go about our business. no alarms, no bells, no screaming TSA agents (we put the dexcom receiver in one of the carry on bags on the belt). If it bings, he says "oh, I do have an insulin pump" and he gets swabbed.
If the body scanner is in use, we tell the TSA agent that he cannot use the full body scanner as his pump manufacturer says not to put the pump through. Then we tell them that he is CAN go through the metal detector or a pat down, or both. We try to make sure they understand we're perfectly happy to comply, just not use the full body scanner. Almost every time, it's a full pat down. He's done it so many times that he doesn't even care anymore. When we load the belt we typically send me first, him second and dh last. That way I can begin collecting our stuff and then stand with our son while he gets his pat down. The past year, our son has been working on speaking up for himself at the airport and that's effing HUGE (pardon my language) because it means we've given him the tools to do it on his own.