David,
I empathasize with your point but my health care providers did prepare me very thoroughly on exactly what to expect. The tech who made the mask was very friendly and informative. There were no surprises. Maybe that's one of the advantages of going to a CCC for treatment.

Amy I think you have MRI machines confused with the PET or PET/CT. The PET is just a giant donut like a CT machine. The MRI is the long tight tube in a large cube. They do have open type MRI machines but their image quality is not as good as the full magnet nitrogen cooled ones, such as the Siemens or GE machines.

Minniea, I had to have 2 masks made because the first one didn't turn out right.

And I did get a pinpoint tattoo - but the laser reference points were post-it dots that were scotch taped on ;-)

Stoj,
I LOVED IMRT - other than it saving my life (details) it also gave me a very reasonable quality of life back which I enjoy very much today. I have almost normal saliva, taste, etc. Other than some minor muscle damage and an occasional neck spasm that's about it.

I didn't like the side effects during treatment either but it sure beats death which would have been a sure thing thing without it. There are many here who had a much tougher time than I did. A few had an easier time as well. I didn't have a PEG tube or Amofostine. But make no mistake about it - radiation therapy is a very difficult treatment - much tougher than surgery.