Mask, phlegmy throat and panic attacks

woisjohngalt,.

First off, I have not read about any H&N member being lost due to choking on the rad table with their mask on (what a wild thought).  Yes, choking is a problem and your throat does not respect a good radiation treatment and you may have phlegm, mucus, swelling, sores, a bad breakfast any number of things to disrupt your daily zap.  Please don’t you worry, the folks at the radiation lab have your number and will step in at the first sign of phlegm distress to save you and see that you get every bit of cancer killing photons your doctor has ordered.

I took one Lorazepam every morning 30 minutes before show time.  I experienced my first anxiety (panic) attack, when going through the PET scan when the doctors wanted to see ALL the active and possible places where cancer had set up camp.  Cancer is both dumb and smart.  Dumb because the sweet concoction they send in during the PET scan draws them out and POW the cancer is in our sights.  Smart because I don’t want my cancer to think I am calling it a bad name and come back and devastate me.  Back to rads, one pill, a good shot of magic mouth wash in the parking lot (now 10 minutes to rads), a quick an happy pee (wash my hands), a rinse, gargle and good swallow of water, double check the oldies music for the day, I like to rub both of my upper arms and my face and then settle back into the radiation zone on the table, where all the fun begins.  I never liked mask time, but came to appreciate what was happening with the machinery and my poor body (most human bodies do not like rads).  BUT these are good rads so we are told, so we accept one more fact about cancer  treatment and there we are.

I once, and only once had to let go of the handles (my treatment radiation table had you hold a handle in each hand), throw my hands in the air and ask for a do over. I simply was not ready, I had a tickle in my throat or something else very  important.   I was de-masked by my beautiful lab technician and returned to the sink where I drank water, gargled and spit and then redid all my arm and face rub and "Voilà!" ("vwah-LAH") my treatment went off without any further delays.

Believe me, you will develop your own personalized, get ready for your rads, or mask time or zap time or whatever you wish to call it and you will get through and probably will not have to throw your hands up and ask for a do over (ever).

Matt

I have had a lot of mucous and still do but mine is basically when I first get up and never bothered me much during the radiation sessions. Guess I was one of the lucky ones.