So Sherry, you should have had the mask fitting and simulation by now. How did you go? Not nearly as bad as you imagined I hope. Keep that memory because it will help with all the other uncharted waters you will sail. The fear of the unknown causes anxiety in itself and once you know how it goes that anxiety drops dramatically.

My Alex was irritable (his outward sign that he was scared) before any procedure we faced for the first time. Immediately after, he was positively buoyant and bounced around the place like he had won the lottery! Ok, maybe not quite that happy, but certainly it was clear a lot of his anxiety had disappeared.

When he got to radiation and got the hang of the procedure he found himself looking forward to it because he felt he was actively doing something to beat the cancer.