The Airport

We arrived at the airport two and a half hours before our flight to Las Vegas.  When we received our boarding passes, they indicated we were headed to the TSA prescreened line.  I do not know how this happened, perhaps it had to do with having a child and a senior citizen in our traveling group, but I'm very happy about it.  The line was short, we kept our shoes on and we didn't have to remove our quart sized ziplocs from our bags.

I informed the person at the head of the line that my child was wearing an insulin pump and that the backpack I had placed on the belt to go through the x-ray machine had diabetes supplies in it including juice boxes.

Danger!  Danger!

We've flown twice before with diabetes, and every time my daughter and her pump have been thoroughly examined for explosives while the backpack full of juice boxes and sharp objects has glided through security without a second glance.

When the insulin pump had been visually examined but not swabbed for explosives, and my daughter had not been subjected to a wanding or a pat down, I thought this was going to go down as our easiest TSA experience yet. Until the backpack was taken aside for inspection.

"There are juice boxes in there for diabetes management," I quickly repeated in hopes of quelling any concerns.  "I mentioned that as we entered the line."

"You're allowed to have these items in here, but you should tell the bag screener they're there," the bag checker admonished us.

When I repeated that I told the person at the head of the line, the bag checker pointed to a man behind the 8 foot high bag x-ray machine, and said I should also have told him.  Which seemed challenging in any circumstance, but particularly since I would have had to speak with him at the same time I had to explain to the metal detector screener that my child was wearing an insulin pump and stay with my child while it was examined.

In the end, the Clifford juice boxes were carefully scrutinized and swabbed. They did not contain any liquid explosives, so we were permitted to continue on to begin our vacation.

On the way home (which is invariably, no matter where we go, a better TSA experience than our local airport), people were nicer. The juice boxes were not swabbed for explosives but the water bottle was. Instead of being scolded we received a helpful piece of advice.  The agent suggested that even if we're TSA prescreened, we should remove the juice and water from the backpack and send it through separately, which will make it clearer that we're not trying to smuggle anything suspect onto the plane.

We'll keep that in mind, of course, but I'm guessing that by the next time we fly they'll be questioning the syringes and lancets instead...just to keep us on our toes.