Thanks for all your responses! So, I got brave and I tried again, this time I gave it a few stretches then stepped into it, pulled it up and found it easy to get in one arm at a time. It is the right size for my chest for sure. It really is a different experience wearing this. I am not sure if I will keep the 997 or exchange it for the 988, which has chest-only compression since I am not sure if I will be able to get used to the compression around my mid-section.
Does anyone who has the 988 have any comments?