Botox® Experiences - Cindy Kline

I've just completed reading all of the posts. I find it interesting that at least to me, it seems those happiest with their Botox® results are among the most recent posts and I attribute this, in part, to doctors now having more expertise in use of the drug and knowledge of placement in its use. I found Boynton's post of November 20005 most helpful and relevant to my situation.

While I've had symptoms since about 1999 - 2000, I first received Botox® in 2004 and have been receiving it every 3 - 4 months since. My neurologist and I have agreed not to directly inject my face but try a "back door" approach, injecting the neck muscles, top of the shoulders, jaw, temples, top of my head in the hairline, and back of the head. 3 vials are used in all. I often feel nausea and flu-like symptoms about a week later, but I'm used to it.

I find that the relaxation of these surrounding muscle areas helps prevent the "big" muscle spasms, and I may be wrong, but I feel it has "bought me some time" and kept the progression at bay. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but that's the way I feel. There is a constant sense that any day, my face is going to just go crazy (despite my neurologist's assurances that I can also stay at this level for the rest of my life, there's no predicting...) so these injections, as well as massage and chiropractic and occasional acupuncture, help me feel that I'm keeping things loose and, perhaps, permanently shutting them down but in areas where there is no drooping or visible effects.

I still feel the R side of my face active beneath the surface, and occasional eyelid fluttering and center of the R cheek fluttering. If my eye fluttering bothers me as I fall asleep, I take 1 mg Klonopin. But it's rare that anything is visible to another person since getting the Botox®, even if I ask them to "watch my face" when I feel a specific area firing, like a spot on my cheek or chin or around my eyes, as it was prior to the Botox®. I feel this is due to the expertise of my neurologist and the way she injects the Botox®, using a monitor that allows her to hear the noise the nerves are making and inject the noisiest spots and taking care with the amounts and placement of the shots. As an aside, I have friends who have received Botox® for cosmetic purposes and again, the difference in their appearance is startling depending upon the dermatologist who does the injections.

So, while it's not for everyone, and I may someday chose to have a MVD, since I'm the only one who seems to have tried this non-facial injection approach, I thought I would write. I'd be eager to hear from anyone else who has had similar spots injected. Best wishes to all.

Permission granted the HFSA to post Botox® Experience on website.
Cindy Kline, April 27, 2006

 

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