Hi,

I have RSD in my left knee/leg. I wear, on this leg, the long version of a DonJoy post operative knee brace, attached to a DonJoy post operative ankle stirrup. I do not wear the brace and stirrup because I recently had surgery in my knee, but because I find the brace and stirrup very effectively support my RSD-affected knee/leg.

When I traveled to a foreign country from the San Francisco International Airport, a TSA employee asked me to remove my brace and stirrup to pat my leg down. After explaining my situation to the TSA employee and showing her a medical statement from my primary care physician, I refused to remove the brace and stirrup. At the time (it was in 2005), the TSA allowed a disabled person to refuse to remove their brace and stirrup. The TSA even mentioned on their web site that a TSA employee should not ask a disabled person to remove their brace and stirrup. I do not know if this is still true six years later. The TSA employee patted me down everywhere on my body, except on my left leg. She had a sort of stick made of plastic; a sort of sponge was fixed to one of its ends. She patted the brace and stirrup down with this sponge stick while explaining to me that she was looking for traces of explosives. She went away with her sponge stick for a while. When she came back, she asked me if the brace and stirrup had been onto the floor/ground. I replied yes, because I had fallen a few times while wearing the brace and stirrup. Did the explosive test come back positive because there was dust on the brace and stirrup? She never told me. The most important thing to me was that the TSA does not force me to remove the brace and stirrup. I am happy they respected my desire so as not to endanger my RSD leg and cause a fall onto an unprotected leg (when it is not braced).

I do not know if I was just lucky or if experiences vary depending on the airport from which a person travels.

I appreciated that the TSA accepted not to scan the bone growth stimulator with which I was traveling because such a device should not be scanned for technical reasons I do not understand.

Priscilla