Adventures In Botox, Volume One

No, this isn't a book review of a book called Adventures in Botox, though that may make for an interesting read, don't you think? It's merely me making a record of my first time getting botox injections. The book review would probably be MUCH more interesting. I got botox injections yesterday for the first time for treatment for my migraines. I'm REALLY hoping that this is the miracle cure that it seems to be for many people. I've had migraines since I was a kid...my first was when I was 9. I've been seeing my current neurologist since I was 19 and we've tried pretty much every drug you can name to treat my migraines and some have helped reduce them, but I still manage to get about 3-4 headaches a week. So she put up a strong case to my insurance company for me being a candidate for botox injections and they finally approved it! We've tried before and they've denied it. 

I was really nervous about getting them as there are all kinds of nightmare stories out there about botox. But I had to remind myself that those are the very small minority of people and those are possible side effects, not probably side effects. Also, the idea of 31 injections just didn't sound too exciting even though needles really don't bother me much. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. My neurologist did all of the injections in a matter of about 3 minutes and I felt fine afterwards. 

Today is a totally different story though. I woke up with my entire head feeling like a giant bruise and I've had the worst headache all day today. I'm really hoping that tomorrow is better than today and not worse. You would think the botox would have the effect of numbing all of that pain, but alas, it doesn't work that way. My doctor says it takes most people about 2 weeks before they start getting the effects. Some people don't get the effects until their second set of injections (which will be three months from now) and some not until their THIRD set. If I don't get relief after three rounds of injections, it won't work. But it helps 70% of people, so I'm really hoping I'm in the majority here! AND that it kicks in really soon. I spent my day at work today with ice packs on my head and that's just not going to work for me :p Sort of defeats the purpose. But I have to remind myself that a headache is expected after having a needle stuck in your head 31 times the day before, especially when said needle has botulinum toxin :p 

Aside from that, life is looking good right now. I have to make it through this week of work and then I have a whole glorious WEEK off of work!!! I've made it tradition to take the week before the readathon off of work so that I guarantee myself two full weeks off of work every year. So I look forward to Dewey's readathons for multiple reasons! I have absolutely NO plans for next week aside for having to see a few clients in private practice on Monday. The weather is finally getting nice down here so I'll probably go take a few walks through the woods and then just get in lots of me time and lots of reading. 

In music news, the new Zola Jesus album, Taiga, came out today and it is AMAZING! I don't talk about music nearly as much as I should on this blog but I was blown away by that album on first listen. She just gets better and better with each album she puts out. Highly recommended! And now back to ice packs and heating pads.