Prothesis and Flying

I have a single prosthesis, and plan to fly soon also. A friend of mine with a double prosthesis

just returned and was scanned by one of the new machines and she said they just passed her

through...we shall see

I am totally unwilling to go through the scanning machines.  I don't want the radiation.  Can they force us?  What if I refuse...do I not get to travel?

I've just taken my first trip since getting my prosthesis. I also have a cochlear implant with an external sound processor behind the ear and implanted portion embedded in the skull and all magnets and whatnot. There was a day that would whoop it up at security, but not a problem these days.

I wear Lululemon type clothes and Birkenstock type shoes to make it easy on myself through the checkpoint. No belt to remove, shoes slip off, toss the laptop in the tray. I NEVER set off alarms. The only time I have been selected for secondary inspection was the time several years ago that I imprudently told the check-in agent that I did not need any further special assistance until I got on the plane because once they find out I am deaf, everybody's too flustered to ask me anything. They obviously thought I had a plan afoot because from that point on, I was searched six ways to Sunday.

I ONCE had a backscatter inspection which was actually kind of cool because you read about it in the paper. As everyone knows by now, the person that sees the image is elsewhere and can't see your name or face. What I thought at the time was "hey, this is the exact same machine they used at the custom fit Levi's trailer at the carnival a few years back".

Anyway, now, after having all these mammos and magnified mammos and stereotactic biopsies and needle guided lumpectomy and all that, I decided I would kind of prefer not to have any more Xrays than I medically have to have. On my recent return trip I noticed they were running the back scatter machine in one lane, but there were multiple lanes, no one was directing travellers to which specific lane, and one of the other lanes was shorter. Long story short, I walked through the regular red light, green light metal detector and the agent said have a nice day. Nobody radiated me. Nobody groped me. Everyone was actually very nice.

My outlook is to not expect the worst, but to be aware of my surroundings and where the lanes go, and if it's up to me, not to wind up in the scanner. Secondly I prefer to think of the agents as individuals who generally are trying to get through a day smoothly and not looking to get into any awkward situations. I'm the sort of person who'd get selected for a pat down and say "cool! free massage!" and I'd probably also not get too bent out of shape if I had a backscatter scan on the rare occasion either. However, if someone made me feel I was being stigmatized, it's on, dude. I'd make them write down every last question to be sure I understood them, since lipreading is so imperfect, and I'd probably reach into my shirt and haul the prosthesis out. They'd probably end up more embarrassed than I would be. And that would be fun too. Happy flying everyone.

There are forms made out of some kind of foam or polyester filling - not sure what they are called, but I've used them right after surgery because they are so light.  But I would think anything on the body could be seen as an anomaly requiring further investigation.  Many women have posted that they have walked through the x-ray machine without any problems wearing prostheses.  Maybe it's a matter of how experienced the particular TSA agent is in detecting what may really be a problem?  I have flown a few times with my silicone (?I think) prosteses and been able to avoid the machines and not had any problems with the "old-fashioned" metal detectors.

Thanks for your suggestions sespebadger and doing better. I appreciate them.