The Transportation Security Administration has surpassed “mothers-in-law” as the thing about which Americans most love to bitch. But unlike mothers-in-law, the TSA will never make you a hot meal, and they’ll certainly never make sure you have clean towels and sheets when you come to visit because Lord knows the gals nowadays don’t know how to keep a clean house like they used to, no sir. The TSA will you do you one worse: they’ll feel you up, they’ll pat you down, they’ll make you miss your flight, they’ll make your grandma strip. And, if you’re unlucky enough to be dying of leukemia, they’ll punch holes in your medically sterile supplies, thus contaminating them, and then give you an invasive and embarrassing public pat down in front of all your fellow travelers.
Michelle Dunaj, of Roseville, MI has leukemia and was told she has three or four months left to live, and as a sort of “last trip,” she saved her shekels for a journey to Hawaii. Just to make sure there weren’t any unforeseen snafus, she called the airport ahead of time to let them know that she had feeding tubes and would be carrying a significant amount of saline solution with her on the plane, because she needs it to keep her alive. The airline and airport filled her in on proper procedures for traveling with medical supplies, and she thought she’d covered all of her bases.