Hi MKlein,
I admire you for trying to make friends with your mask. I'm struggling to be positive about mine. I'm getting used to it, so I must be having some success.

The mask is worn daily during each rad treatment. You lay on a hard friggin board, and they bolt your mask down to the table so you literally cannot move. My radiation treatments last roughly 20 minutes from the time I walk into the room to the time I leave the cancer center.

Because my back hates laying on flat hard surfaces, the technicians are nice and give me a towel folded in 4's to place at my lower back, and they give me a knee cushion plus a pillow so it lifts my legs and takes some of the curve out of my back (I have a big butt). That makes it far more comfortable.

The technicians assure me they are watching me on a camera the whole time and if I feel any distress, all I have to do is wave my arms and they'll be right in to help. I have concerns as I get further into this of gagging or coughing or feeling nauseous.

As with everything, the deeper I get into this journey, the more I see my previous fears as no big deal. I'm getting that way about the mask. After going thru MRIs and PET scans, a simple mammogram is nuthin'. And I suspect by the time I get to the end of my treatments, my fears about wearing the mask will make me laugh.

One of the techs suggested I think of it as wearing armor. It's there to protect you.

And MKlein... I'm waving at you from the other end of the Columbia Gorge, in The Dalles. I see you are from Sandy -- it's a beautiful little community.