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I need to travel to US for Christmas celebrations. My phone is kind of important for my diabetes control and insulin dosage. My pump and CGM do not tolerate x-r

by pimeys 8y ago

I need to travel to US for Christmas celebrations. My phone is kind of important for my diabetes control and insulin dosage. My pump and CGM do not tolerate x-ray and it's prohibited in the manual. What are my chances to go through the US border safe, or should I cancel my trip?

komali2 8y ago
Keep the pump and CGM on you, don't check them. When you leave, you'll have to let TSA manually look at them. Tell them before they put it on the Smith's detection belt, which uses Xray. Customs and border control don't xray your stuff unless you're randomly selected. If you're randomly selected, tell them about the pump and CGM and how it can't be xray. Based on my experience with asshole CBP agents, they may "punish" you by throwing all your shit all over the place when they paw through your stuff, or you might get lucky and get just a normal search. As for your phone, lock it with a password, disable fingerprint unlock, and good luck. I wanted to link to CBP's help website for medical devices, but their HTTPS certificate is invalid lol. Fuck's sake. https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2016/11/15/tsa-shares-tips-travelers-disabilities-medical-devices-medical-conditions https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2016/11/15/tsa-shares-tips...
- craftyguy 8y ago
  > but their HTTPS certificate is invalid lol. And yet, these are the folks we 'trust' to protect our borders.
- toyg 8y ago
  > unless you're randomly selected There is nothing "random" in the selection, let's not continue spreading this delusion. It took 4 trips to the US, for that sorry excuse of an AI they use for the selection, to finally decide I wasn't a threat. If algorithms to generate numbers were all as random as the TSA one, I could probably predict every encryption key out there.
compostable 8y ago
Honestly, cancel the trip. Meet in Canada instead.
samschooler 8y ago
My sister also is a Type I diabetic. She has a similar setup. She just notifies them before the search and usually just gets a metal detector + pat down. You should be okay. Good luck on your trip! :)
Notre1 8y ago
I guess you are getting down voted here because your question is off topic from the article. Try posting your question to travel.stackexchange.com. I've seen a number of these types of questions on there and there are some knowledgeable people that will answer you there.
stevenwliao 8y ago
If your phone is mission-critical for diabetes control, you should make sure to have some backup, since there are other ways your phone can fail. Once these backup mechanisms are in place, as a handy side effect, you're also covered for the CBP case.

by pimeys 8y ago

komali2 8y ago

Keep the pump and CGM on you, don't check them. When you leave, you'll have to let TSA manually look at them. Tell them before they put it on the Smith's detection belt, which uses Xray. Customs and border control don't xray your stuff unless you're randomly selected. If you're randomly selected, tell them about the pump and CGM and how it can't be xray. Based on my experience with asshole CBP agents, they may "punish" you by throwing all your shit all over the place when they paw through your stuff, or you might get lucky and get just a normal search. As for your phone, lock it with a password, disable fingerprint unlock, and good luck. I wanted to link to CBP's help website for medical devices, but their HTTPS certificate is invalid lol. Fuck's sake. https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2016/11/15/tsa-shares-tips-travelers-disabilities-medical-devices-medical-conditions https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2016/11/15/tsa-shares-tips...

craftyguy 8y ago
> but their HTTPS certificate is invalid lol. And yet, these are the folks we 'trust' to protect our borders.
toyg 8y ago
> unless you're randomly selected There is nothing "random" in the selection, let's not continue spreading this delusion. It took 4 trips to the US, for that sorry excuse of an AI they use for the selection, to finally decide I wasn't a threat. If algorithms to generate numbers were all as random as the TSA one, I could probably predict every encryption key out there.

compostable 8y ago

Honestly, cancel the trip. Meet in Canada instead.

samschooler 8y ago

My sister also is a Type I diabetic. She has a similar setup. She just notifies them before the search and usually just gets a metal detector + pat down. You should be okay. Good luck on your trip! :)

Notre1 8y ago

I guess you are getting down voted here because your question is off topic from the article. Try posting your question to travel.stackexchange.com. I've seen a number of these types of questions on there and there are some knowledgeable people that will answer you there.

stevenwliao 8y ago

If your phone is mission-critical for diabetes control, you should make sure to have some backup, since there are other ways your phone can fail. Once these backup mechanisms are in place, as a handy side effect, you're also covered for the CBP case.