Botox Injections #1

Yesterday I experienced a procedure like none other. I had botox. I have gotten a few funny looks when I have mentioned that as I do not have wrinkles in my face. What I do have though are headaches that are debilitating, exhausting and painful. You might wonder what botox and headaches have in common (so did I), but it turns out that they can work quite nicely with one another. I met with my neuromuscular doctor a few months back and he had suggested trying botox as a way of relieving some of my headache symptoms. Apparently this is something that could be done. Who knew??

I will be the first to say that it was by no means a comfortable experience. In fact, it was rather painful. How someone chooses to do this voluntarily for cosmetic reasons continues to baffel me, but to each his own. The reasoning for getting botox injections is that it is supposed to "numb" or "paralyze" my neck muscles, so that they can sort of relax. Beyond that explanation I am a little foggy on the exact reasoning, but I am short on options, so I decided to give it a go. The trigger points in my neck were injected with this botox and the hope is that these painful trigger points will eventually go away.
Yesterday's experience felt more like hot hot water running into my skull, accompanied by a lot of poking and crunching in my neck muscles. Not pleasant on any scale. I had 3 injections done yesterday and I will have a few more at the end of May - this time in the front of my neck and then hopefully after that I will be good to go for 3 months before I may need some more. We're taking this in steps and if it's not working we will explore new treatment options.

Yesterday I was quite drowsy and sore. I have very little ability to hold up my head right now (thank goodness for laptops and lots and lots of pillows) as my muscles are "numb", but I am told my strength will return and the pain will go away in a few days. Today I made the mistake of maybe overdoing it at work (I still worked on 4 clients - oops) and am now feeling the effects of that. I will know better for next time that I need to take the day off of work. I am still quite sore today. Driving hurts and I feel like I have been beaten across the back of my head. The doctor warned me that I may have some substantial bruising that will appear in the next few days, but I would much more deal with an ugly, bruised neck rather then a headache. I don't know if my head feels any different today - I can't say that I have headache, but I'm feeling a lot of other pain, so it could just be masked.

The rest of today and tomorrow will be somewhat low key as I gear up for heading out to Vancouver/Abbotsford on Thursday. Thank you for all of those people who prayed for me yesterday. Your prayers are very much appreciated. I am hoping and praying very hard that this will work and that relief will be had.