 Hello, my beautiful, talented, intelligent internet friends. I am Jo, and I would like to welcome you back to our first and only installment of airport security. This past week, I flew down to Las Vegas, Nevada with my husband and two of our very best friends just for a couple quick days, which means that I went through airport security on the way down there and both on the way back. And I had a lot of questions about airport security as an amputee, as a person with a now visible disability, before I ever took a trip and I've gone on a couple now to have enough experience to kind of talk about what usually happens that I wanted to share that with you guys today. And my friend Aaron from Life of Paulos, who we traveled with, was kind enough to think to take some video as all of this was happening. So I actually have some visual aid to show you. Before we launched into this video, if you felt like it, only if you felt like it, if you'd like to hit the like button on this video, it helps to get out to more people, it helps with YouTube engagement, it helps the channel, and I would appreciate it, but there's no pressure to do so. So going through TSA, going through flight security, at least here in the United States, I think for a lot of people, we see it as a hassle, but it's a very necessary one. I mean, obviously they're trying their best to keep us safe. And prior to losing my leg, all I ever thought to do was take my shoes off, throw my stuff in the bins, and I'm pretty much good to go. There was one situation in which they thought there was some kind of weird substance on my hands and so I got detained for a while. That was a fun experience, which actually ended up being medications that I was legally taking, so I was obviously let go immediately, but aside from that, it's always been smooth sailing. However, since my amputation, since I've been with a prosthetic leg, things have changed a little bit, and not in a negative way, just in a way that I think it's necessary to be aware of if you're going to be traveling with significant mobility aids or if you're traveling as an amputee through an airport. I wanna preface this by saying that this has just been my experience, this isn't gonna be everybody's experience, and I will post some links down below to some actual official information from airport security, from TSA, that gives you a little bit more background on what I'm talking about. I wondered what would happen would they tell me to take my leg off the first time I was wearing my leg and going through security? Could they do that? The answer is no, because it's technically, the device is a part of you if you're wearing a prosthesis. They can't ask you to rip your leg off, right? At least that's what I've been told, much like they can't ask someone who's in a wheelchair to stand up, but along with that, obviously you're gonna come some additional precautions. Aside from my return trip from Las Vegas back to Colorado Springs, every single time I've gone through security I have been fully searched, the feeling you up kind of searched. And I think that this is something that's very important to be aware of if you are someone who has experienced any kind of trauma in your life as I have. It's something that I am comfortable enough with now, professional people doing in a professional setting, but if it's not something you're expecting, you're just going about your day, you're going on your travels and all of a sudden someone's feeling you up in very private places in front of people, that's weird, that's uncomfortable. So my experience has been that the vast majority of the time they will actually search you. They will fully search your body, it's not a strip search, but that's oftentimes in front of people and that can make it extra uncomfortable. As you can see here, there are like tons of people walking by and it's just me being felt up everywhere, which is not my favorite experience, I'll just say that. Something to be aware of with that is that you can request that they do this in private if that's something that you're more comfortable with. Now me personally, I would be less comfortable with that because I don't want to be alone with someone who's touching me. Anyways, long story short, this is a real possibility if you are an amputee going through security and you are wearing a prosthetic. On top of that, they're also going to test you for chemicals or anything like that. It's basically these little pads that they rub on your fingers and then they also, for me, will rub that on my prosthetic leg. They'll run it through a machine, they'll wait like 30 seconds and it'll give you a pass fail and thankfully I've passed every time I don't have any dangerous chemicals or anything that's alarming on my body or residue of anything, that's what they're basically testing for. The one time that I went through that they didn't fully search me, they still did that. They still tested my prosthetic leg, they still wiped it down with this thing, it's not wet, it's like a dry just pad that somehow picks up what they need to pick up on and tested my hands. Going to the airport, I always like to budget just a little bit of extra time. There have been times where I've had to go through the airport in a wheelchair as well as wearing my prosthetic when I was having a really bad day and that took even longer to be searched, sitting down with a prosthetic in a wheelchair. They were very respectful about it but it just, it takes a few extra minutes, right? It's extra minutes out of their day, it's extra minutes out of your day and it's hard to do that while being stressed and running late for anything, so if you can, I would highly recommend that you budget extra minutes when you're getting to the airport. Side note as well, I feel like a lot of people know about this but not everyone because this wasn't something that I was aware of. You can request a wheelchair when you're in an airport. Some airports, depending on the size, are really, really big and require a lot of walking. Like the main airport that I will often fly out of, Denver International Airport is huge and requires a lot of walking and someone will actually bring you from location to location but if that is the case, you do wanna call ahead for that because most of the time in my experience, they don't just give you the chair and let you go with it and or let someone you're traveling with push you, they actually have someone assigned to transfer you from location to location and that's part of the protocol that they have. That may not always be the case but that has always been the case when I have been there. Another thing with security, if you have a prosthetic foot, you'll know that it's not the easiest thing in the world to take on and off your shoes. Sometimes that requires a lot of muscle work and a shoe horn and it's just difficult. So trying to like pop off your shoes and airport security to get them in the conveyor belt thing to go through the security machine to then pop them back on real quick and get to your flight isn't gonna work. You can absolutely let the security person know, hey, I have a prosthetic leg, I'm not gonna be able to take my shoes off for medical reasons, leave it at that and then they'll do the appropriate measures like testing like I talked about and they'll let you know what they need to do but you do not have to take your shoes off if there is a medical reason that you are not gonna be able to do that and they'll walk you through that. As a whole, I found that both US and the one international airport that I traveled to which was Dublin International Airport have been really mobility friendly. They've been very accessible, they've been very understanding. It is really uncomfortable to have to go through additional security screening measures sometimes but I do my best to kind of just play it cool and realize that it's part of the process and realize that they are doing their job and not at all give them a hard time about it because it's literally protocol, it's what they have to do to do their jobs as well. They probably don't wanna be pulling me aside and basically feeling me up in front of a bunch of people either because that's not super comfortable. So it's not a comfortable experience all around. I think it's something that's important to be mentally prepared for the possibility of happening but it's something that takes a few minutes and then you're good to go. In every experience I've ever had they are not invasive, they are as respectful as possible. They should tell you exactly what they're gonna do. They should explain it beforehand. If they don't do that, ask them to do that. That's what they should be doing and hopefully you have positive experiences getting through airport security as an amputee or with whatever you are dealing with as I primarily have as well. So I'm curious if you've had these experiences. If you had good experiences or bad experiences getting through airport security, if you have any tips and tricks please leave them in the comment section down below. I'll reply, we'll try to share information and then get more info out to more people. I think education is always good and knowing what to expect really helps me alleviate anxiety and so I wanna be able to share as much of that information as possible. So comment down below any questions or stories that you have. Thank you to my patrons for making these videos possible. I truly, truly, truly appreciate you and all you do for me. If you're interested in what Patreon is or what you get for that or what that community looks like I'll put a link up on screen and I would love it if you'd consider checking it out. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day. Just spend them here with me, hanging out, learning about being an amputee in airport security. I know most people watching this channel actually aren't amputees. I think it's really cool that you wanna learn a little bit more about life as an amputee especially if you aren't one. So thanks for listening. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. I'm gonna start to sing and her from the sky.