ostomies and TSA/flying

My husband actually wrote a fairly detailed blog post about this very topic! Hopefully, it can help you and ease any worries. It's based on his experiences, and he has flown a few more times since writing it and hasn't had too much trouble.

http://nogutsgodsglory.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/what-its-like-with-an-ostomy-tsa-checkpoints/

My daughter has flown 5 round trips in the past year with her ileostomy. She used to mention it ahead of time and they usually did not know what she meant and they'd go get someone who would do the pat down. But lately, she says nothing and just breezes on through the metal detectors. She is not embarrassed at all to show them the bag if it gets noticed in the scanner. She just lifts the bottom of her shirt to show the bag and they just send her on her way. It has never been a problem for her. As Brian84 said, there is really no need to volunteer information unless asked.

I have flown many many times in US and Europe in the past 5years with an ileo. I have never had any problems. I just empty my bag right before going through security, gone through body scan, pat down, and regular security thingy. Never mentioned "ostomy" to anyone until recently.

EXCEPT, I just traveled for the holidays overseas, and it seems the TSA has some new protocol as to how to handle an ostomy. In two different US airports, I went through the body scan machine. I was pulled aside for a pat down at each one after the body scan. In the first one, the female TSA person was extremely communicative and explained where she was patting.. starting with head, shoulders, etc. Then as she neared my abdomen she said "now I will near your "sensitive area". Then I told her I had an ostomy. And she said "I know." She patted down my sides, but never touched my ostomy area at all. Then all she did was swab my hands.. for explosives.. I guess.

The second one, same thing.. pulled me aside and said she needed to pat me down because of a "sensitive area." She asked me if I wanted to go to a private room. I declined. She patted down the same way as the first, communicating step by step. Then when she got near the "sensitive area" aka.. the ostomy. I told her i had an ostomy. And she too said.. "I know". She asked me to touch that area with my hands completely on top of my clothing. Then she did the swab of my hands for explosives.

both times.. the TSA personnel were extremely gracious, considerate, respectful of my medical situation, my privacy, and did their job without me really even having to tell them I had an ostomy. They must be getting education now on what it looks like on the body scan and how to discretely do a thorough security check without being invasive. Kudos to the TSA!

I've found that there are two different kinds of scanners ... one of them sort of looks like a sideways CT machine, where something goes all the way around you -- that one picks up the bag. The other kind does not, and the metal detectors don't either. I think that's why people have had such mixed experiences.

At first I told people about the bag, and had a variety of pat downs or just testing my hands. Then from advice here, I started not telling people, and went through several scanners w/no issue.... but then I had some where the bag showed up, in one place I saw the image and there was my bag in bright yellow!

Like ddd45, in all cases the TSA people have been friendly and professional. In the early ones, they often had no idea what they were dealing with (I started saying "colostomy bag" even though I have an ileo, because they've heard of that), but overall, I think they are more educated now.

I think it's a very small amount of radiation in the scanner... although if I knew I was always going to set it off, might just start w/a pat down.

I just try to remember how awful/impossible it was to travel when I was sick, and relatively speaking the rest is not so bad.

Yep it depends on the scanner. The old type doesn't pick it up full or empty, the new full body type, which is what they have at may main airport SFO always does. The protocol at SFO is that they have me touch the bag on the outside of my clothing then they wipe sample my hand and run the wipe sample it through a machine. With an experienced TSA officer it takes an extra minute or two if everything goes right. a slight hassle but certainly manageable