I mentioned about a month ago how I had my first experience flying since I’ve had my surgery. Well, it was a mildly interesting event, but also can provide an idea of what you might expect if you’re dealing with the same thing.
My trip was pretty straightforward: direct flight and only a couple of days long. Therefore, I was not checking any bags, so I knew that whatever I brought would have to be OK in my carry-on. Just to be sure, I called the TSA at my airport the day before and explained my situation. The agent told me just to let the TSA agent at the airport know when I got there. She also said that my surgical scissors where fine to pack. That was good news for me because I still measure and cut-to-fit all of my bags. And finally, I checked to make sure all of my gels, etc. where the correct size and they all met the requirement.
Now, my home airport has the invasive full-body scanners and everyone has to walk through them, not just a random few. As soon as I was set to go through it, I pulled the agent aside and let her know that I had an ostomy and therefore would have a bag on under my clothes. She sent me through the scanner as usually, but then stopped me on the other side and asked me to wait. I’m not exactly sure what we were waiting for, but a few minutes later she sent me to the explosives lady. Basically she had me put my hands on my bag, then she swabbed my hands for explosive residue and sent it through a machine. Once it came back negative I was good to go and ran into no other issues. On the way home, the airport only had metal scanners and I didn’t even mention it to anyone and sailed right through with not problem.
So that was the extent of it. Took me a couple of extra minutes to make it through the check and was pulled aside, but didn’t have to deal with anything too invasive (outside of the normal scan.) Although, if you plan on flying, it’s probably worth a couple minutes of your time to call your local TSA beforehand, just to make sure there’s nothing else you should be aware of.
Has anyone else flown or travelled with an ostomy? Run into any roadblocks?
Nobody likes the invasive searching from TSA but it can be even more invasive for those with personal medical needs. There are horror stories from individuals with medical conditions including Ostomy who have been badly treated by TSA staff, mostly out of their own ignorance. But I won’t get into those; honestly, we haven’t heard any new ones for awhile. There are many ostomates traveling on a regular basis and by now it is shameful for any TSA to be unfamiliar with an ostomy.
Because of these fears, aside from general product info, we get asked for travel advice more than anything else from our ostomate customers. Kudos, you did your due diligence to prepare yourself to get through the line smoothly and without hassles.
For anyone concerned about traveling with a medical condition, UOAA has a printable card to fill out and hand to a TSA agent that states you have an ostomy so you can discreetly tell them without announcing it to the room. There is a second card that states a demand for bathroom access. http://www.ostomy.org/ostomy_info/pubs/Travel_Card_2011b.pdf
Thanks, Adam. Great information!
You’re welcome.
I like the blog, keep up the good posts!
Well that’s good food for thought! I’ve been lucky so far as I’ve flown from Atl to Miami back and forth twice, from Miami to the bahamas, and then Atl to L.A. Nothing out of the ordinary and all within the last 6-7 years. I consider myself the lucky ones but now I’ll think twice about the full body scanners as i’ve yet to deal with that. Anyhow love the title, funny. Lots of good information, thnx!
Thanks, Micah.