sholio | (no subject)

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I made fresh brownies and had ice cream and brownies for lunch.

I love being an adult.

I'm feeling especially perky at the moment because I finished the rough draft of my genficathon story and I have a freelance project this week that I'm getting paid quite nicely for. (Also, I'm on a sugar high. That probably has something to do with it.) So I'm celebrating by ... surfing.

Random question time. I just today ran across a scene in which a character talks about setting off a metal detector after getting metal pins put in their ankle. Now, here's the thing -- I've had a really BIG metal pin (plus some small ones) in my leg since I was 11 and have never once set off a metal detector. Yet, in fiction, I regularly run across the assumption that you should. So, here's my question -- have you, or anyone you know or have heard of, ever set off a metal detector with an implant? I'm curious if it's something to do with the particular surgery I had or the alloy they used in me, or if I've just been lucky so far, or if this is simply a case of writers using a common-sense guess which happens to be wrong. And I'd be interested to know what other people's experiences have been.

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My US history teacher in high school had a bunch of metal in her knee - I don't know details of the surgery but she busted it playing soccer more than once - and does have metal detector problems. Has a card she carries when flying that says she has metal in her knee.

(also had a hilarious story about just after the surgery chaperoning a school trip to...I can't remember if it was the end of the USSR or a very young Russia...and trying to figure out how to communicate to the security people in the tiny Russian airport that she was setting off the alarms because she'd had knee surgery and eventually dropping her pants to show them the scars)

I'm sure it has to do with what metal was used and where and how much.

And yay brownies for lunch! I actually had brownies for breakfast today...

My mother was given an ID card because after she had her knees replaced she routinely set off metal detectors. It may be the density of the joint or something?

you are just lucky. Depends a HUGE lot on the airport, how sensative the equipment is, how picky the people running it are.. etc.

My sister has a metal bar and screws in her leg. She has a 50/50 chance of being pulled for 'extra' security and extra testing. Like the people at SD are lazy, but she always gets tagged at SFO and when we travled to Canada, same issue. Maybe you have screws that are a different alloy or not large enough or something. I'll have to ask my mom, she's got screws and plates in her ankle, I'll find out if she's gotten through okay.

Oh dear ... the only thing worse than dealing with security people, has to be dealing with security people who don't speak the same language!

Perhaps it's the alloy, then. For some reason this is something I never even thought to ask a doctor (maybe because it was so many years between the time I had the surgery, and when I flew for the first time ... I never even thought about it).

Mmm ... brownies.

Thanks for the info!

It might be the alloy. It's a metal rod as big around as my thumb and the length of my thigh. You'd think if anything was was going to set off a metal detector, it would! But I know it's mostly titanium, and perhaps that doesn't trip the sensors.

Hmm, yeah, I'm thinking maybe it's the metal? (It's titanium, mostly.) Or perhaps the fact that in my case, it's entirely enclosed by bone, so maybe that affects the metal detector's reactivity.

With metal detectors getting more sensitive after 9/11, maybe I ought to start being alert for the possibility.

But I really didn't know that one could ... so I appreciate the information.

Yep. Plus...all the students she was chaperoning and the other teachers were pretty much on the plane that was threatening to take off without her and...well, she was a good story teller and it was a good story.

Alloy makes sense. I think metal detectors use some form of magnetism (which, um, is not my strength in terms of understanding solid-state materials) and some metals are definitely more magnetic than others. Iron would be more likely to set things off. Anything more...noble metal like wouldn't (gold, silver, platinum)

Brownies are ALWAYS good :)

Some sort of titanium alloy is what I have -- well, as far as I know. Perhaps it's not that magnetic.

I have titanium pins in my ankle and I occasionally set off the detector :P

More in recent years though, when they upped the security levels.

My uncle has... something metal in his hip, I'm not sure what, but he has a special document saying he beeps in airports :-)

Wow, the evidence is definitely leaning towards "lucky" here!

I had no idea it was so common to set off metal detectors. Perhaps I should prepare myself with a doctor's note or something just in case I do.

It would actually be kind of cool to have a note like that!

From the look of things, I've just been extremely lucky so far.

The doctor's note isn't really worth much these days - due to the fact that it can be easily faked.

All you have to do is inform the screeners before you go through the detector, and if you do set off the alarm they'll pass the handheld wand over you to make sure that it's the metal in your leg setting it off and not something else. :P

It's kind of 70/30 as to whether or not I set them off, because I really don't have that much metal in me - just a few screws and pins. I think it's because of where it's located - because the tiniest bit of metal in shoes is enough to set the thing beeping wildly.

(Raises hand) I've had two total hip replacement surgeries done, one for each hip by age 40...very rare, but it happened. Healthy hips to no femoral head in two years. And it's a MAJOR pain in the butt to travel. I just factor extra time in to have the portable wand metal detector waved over me indiviually -- with my hands in the air and no shoes. Good thing I'm not shy *GG*

The first time I went through the metal detector was a surprise. I forgot all about the metal detector until the alamrs went off. FYI, you have to be careful with MRIs, too. I can't complain too much, I couldn't walk by the time they figured out it was my hips and not my back. Two years from diagnosis to surgery to the next surgery to physical therapy to rehabilitation back to the work force. It was like a miracle though. I REALLY appreciate my walks, though!

Anyway, that's my perspective on it!

freelance? what kind of freelance?

ahhhhh!!! I'm dealing with one client right now, and she is making me want to walk to her an slap her REALLY HARD.

I feel like crying...*cries* the worst part is I can't ditch her because she is also the client for a project I'm doing at school an I need to finish the project for my grade, she is TOTALLY taking advantage of me.

I am so depress now, I hate dealing with clients, how do you deal with them?

you're lucky. My sister sometimes gets the 'pat down' and has to bare her leg to show the scars - ie, yes, there is metal in there and it's not my shoes/pants/buttons/etc. Maybe because she has more metal and the wand thingie makes louder noises.

Wow -- both hips ... that's pretty major! Modern medicine is an amazing thing. Holy moley.

freelance? what kind of freelance?

Graphic design and typesetting. This week I'm doing the Air Force base newspaper ... I don't do it every week, but I'm the backup for the person who normally does it, on weeks when she is unable.

Dealing with clients, heh, I only wish there was a magic formula for that! The Air Force people are really nice, but wow, it is difficult getting the information from them, and then the proofs have to be shown all the way up the chain of command before it can be approved to run.

I don't know anyone with pins but my Mum set off the alarms at the Magistrate's Court in Melbourne whilst wearing a heart monitor. My sister had to rescue her :)

Looks like I'm lucky too! I have a plate of some sort in my head; when I was growing up, my relatives would toss around the will-she-or-won't-she thing about me and metal detectors, but it has never been an issue.

I went to a trade show in Atlanta back in the early 90's with a group of people from work. On our way back to Texas one of the men in the group set off the metal detectors at the airport with a particularly embarrasing piercing that he probably didn't want the owner of the company to know about. Oh well... The ladies from the customer service department were apparently quite interested to here about the piercing. Go figure! LOL

huh. I had a metal plate and pins in my ankle for just over 10 years but never had any metal detector problems--granted I think i only went through a detector maybe a half a dozen times in all that time and it was pre 9/11 so that might have had something to do with it.

I could play with magnets though if they were powerful enough. Hubby took the magnet from a computer's innards (i have no idea what part but its powerful) and I could get it to pull at the big pin in my ankle. Wouldn't stick to the plate side though.

I love being an adult.

Isn't it grand?

Random question time. I just today ran across a scene in which a character talks about setting off a metal detector after getting metal pins put in their ankle.

My little brother had major spinal reconstructive surgery four years ago. He has forty pins and rods in his spine, and he has never set off a metal detector. He HAS, however, alarmed those folks with the metal detector wands at the airport, not because the wand went off, but because it buzzed whenever it went over his back like it *wanted* to. Still, forty pins and rods -- if they didn't set off a metal detector, nothing will.

I've had pins in my knees since the early 80s. Depends on the airport and the setting on the machine. Usually it's not a problem at all, but during a red alert at LAX a few years ago, I was practically strip searched.

Like

ladyflowdi said, it's generally the wands that are the problem, not the metal detectors themselves.

Piercing jewellery on the other hand ...

Heh -- not metal inside the body, but right after 9/11 I had a hell of a time with bras. I used to go back and forth between Logan (Boston) and LaGuardia (NYC) a great deal for work, and after setting it off repeatedly, I was finally informed that it was the bra. Also, my hair barrette set it off a couple of times. So, for about a year after 9/11, I went "wireless." They've toned it down since then (thank goodness) so it's not an issue anymore, but it was a hell of a thing when they were pulling all the women out because their bras were setting off the detectors. Nothing lovlier than having some beefy guy with an excuse to leer at your breasts as he waves the wand over you. LOL!

(Logan's also sort of insane with security. They're absolutely paranoid, since all the 9/11 bombers got on there.)

Goodness ... bras can set them off? I didn't even know that could happen!

There is some item of clothing I wear (I still haven't figured out what, but I'm starting to lean towards "bra") that sets off the theft detection devices at supermarkets and bookstores. It's really, really annoying, although the clerk at Barnes & Noble told me that it's relatively common for some brands of clothing to have anti-theft tags sewn into them that set off the detectors. They go off in Barnes & Noble so often that the employees just ignore them ... which makes them pretty useless for their intended purpose, methinks.

Heh! Well, I guess not so funny if it's happening. You'd think they'd have that kind of thing happen a lot, if it's going to.

A plate in your head, eh? I think that's the one I've most commonly heard anecdotal evidence that they set off metal detectors, but maybe that's just the one that most people think of when they think of hardware inside the body.

*snort* Yeah ... that would kind of suck!

(It kinda reminds me of the way that working at a newspaper, as I do, there is absolutely no way you can get your name in the police blotter or the court reports without EVERYONE in the building knowing about it the next day.)

Hmm, magnets! I never tried that! Now I'm kind of curious to see if magnets work on me, too ...

Oh, that's interesting -- I wonder if the wand would pick up mine? To the best of my recollection, as many times as I've flown, I've never had them go over me with the wand.

This thread is making me glad I don't have anything pierced. :D I would hate to have to explain that.

Once I actually let someone touch me so I wouldn't have to go take my clothes off. I have since given up that piece of jewellery and that was a large part of the decision making process, I promise you!

First off...brownies and ice cream rule! Today I discovered for the first time that a chocolate snack pack pudding with crushed fudge striped cookies mixed in was awesome. Yes, being an adult does have advantages.

As for the pin thing... hubby just had pins put in his arm and shoulder and was told they would eventually disintigrate and be replaced by bone growth.

Nice lunch! One of the things I love about being an adult is that I can have the same thing for dinner as I had for lunch if I want. And no one cares about some of the odd food combinations I like (Cooper Sharp cheese and a cup of mint tea...the best snack ever! Or peanut butter and butter sandwiches).

As for the metal detector question...I think it depends on the amount of metal (all in one piece, rather than multiple small pieces), and the type of metal involved. It also depends on how sensitive the individual metal detector is.

My father had a metal bridge in his nose (to hold it's shape after it was broken several times when he was a young man). It never set off metal detectors. He also had a plastic kneecap (threw out his knee folk dancing - doing those Russian/Ukrainian squat-kick things...I can't remember what they're called). And when he was around 65, he shattered his ankle when he stepped in a hole while running after my little brother. He had to have a number of screws and pins inserted in the ankle, as well as a metal shank that ran most of the way up his calf. The shank did set off some metal detectors, but not all.

So, to answer your question, I think it depends on a number of factors.

I have a co-worker whose bra set off the metal detectors at the courthouse when she was called for jury duty a couple of years ago. My bras have underwires as well, but they don't seem to be made of metal, so I haven't had any problems. I do have trouble at a certain chain of convenience stores if I'm carrying library books. It seems that the magnetic security strip pasted into the library books sets off the convenience store's security system!

I had problems at SFO right after 9/11 with an underwire bra - luckily most of the screeners were Asian-grandma types who were almost embarrassed when they realized what set it off.

I love being an adult - for me chocolate cake and coffee is a perfectly acceptable breakfast.

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