Hello my beautiful talented intelligent internet friends I am Joe 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 Paulus who we traveled with was kind enough to think to take some video as all of this was happening so I actually have some some visual aid to show you. Before we launch into this video if you felt like it, only if you felt like it, you would like to hit the like button on this video and help stick it 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 a negative way just in a way that I think is 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 want to preface this by saying that this has just been my experience. This isn't going to 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 like 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 going to 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. 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 a 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 and 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 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 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 want to call a head for that because most of the time in my experience they don't just give you the chair and let you go with it you know let you you know someone you're traveling with push you they actually have someone assigned to transfer you from location to location 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 am 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 the back on real quick and get to your flight isn't going to work you can ask to leave that security person know hey I have a prosthetic leg I'm not going to 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's a medical reason that you are not going to 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 want to 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 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 going to 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 in knowing what to expect really helps me leave you anxiety and so I want to 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 want to 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 bye you