Originally Posted by
iowakatie1981
Spent an inordinate amount of time with the blacklight though, like some bouncer at a club checking to make sure I really was 21…whatever… I put ID and boarding pass back in my bag and was not asked for it again.
I don't get that, either. I think perhaps it's the least invasive of the security-for-show things, but it wastes time and has little to do with proving it's a real ID (pardon the pun). If you can't tell an ID is valid by sight, something's wrong.
and I kept asking them if I could have a lead drape to protect my ovaries. They clearly thought I was crazy, and patdown lady kept reassuring me that “her friend the radiologist” told her that he is exposed to more radiation at his job than she is at hers. Whatever, lady.
(I didn’t mention that most radiologists I know sit in the back room with the light board and read the films, and it’s the radiology techs responsible for actually running the machines. I didn’t think that would be helpful at the moment.)
Throughout the whole process, I just kept saying over and over again that I have been exposed to plenty of radiation in my life, I’ve always been shielded, those operating the machinery have always left the room, and that I hope I’m able to have kids in the future.
Funny, my husband mentioned that the dude who groped him within an inch of his life also had a "radiologist friend." TSA must have some befriend-a-radiologist program.
That earned me a smart--- “Sarah’s been working here 6 years and she got pregnant.” I responded that I knew she hadn’t been working around these specific machines for 6 years, and they didn’t really have an answer for that. So they took about 8-10 pics of my leg, and at one point I was literally straddling the machine because they felt they needed to xray the medial side of the leg. I could practically feel my ovaries shriveling up and dying. They did let me see the pictures – not much detail, but still more than I’m comfortable with – and I saw them (supposedly) delete them in prep for the next passenger. My leg does not have the fancy computer components that some do, but it was clear from the training/education/overall competency level of these two women that they would have no idea how to tell the difference between electronic prosthetic components and electronic bomb components.
As I was putting my shoes back on and getting my stuff back together, patdown lady tried to engage me along the lines of “that wasn’t so bad, was it?” I didn’t take the bait, and she kept going on how her job’s not so bad, everybody just needs to come with the right attitude, etc…I said that, all the same, if it was me, I think I’d have to find a new job. She didn’t like that very much, and went back to her thing about “her friend the radiologist” before I finally just left.
Ridiculous.
Total time was about 20 mins.
Assessment: I actually hated the xray part more than the patdown. When I leave Austin, I will be asking to take the leg off and have it xrayed without me “in it.” We’ll see what happens. Maybe it’s just the idea of all these TSO pizza box employees operating medical equipment on me. Ick.
Thanks for all the help and support, I’ll let you know how Austin goes.
Oh, my, I'm so sorry. This is patently awful, and the whole straddling-the-xray thing is absolutely terrifying. It also proves that the TSA claim that people aren't being singled out for being disabled is a crock of fertilizer, but we knew that.
I hope Austin goes better. Much better...and that they nuke you a bit less.