Botox Update - Need more meds now than before

April 21, 2010

Hello all.

A couple weeks ago I received a botox injection in my neck. The results are as

follows.

The botox shot to my trapezius muscle (injected at the base of my neck near

where my neck becomes my shoulder) did indeed stop the spasming in the muscle

that it was supposed to. So, that is a plus. I have had that spasm problem for

years.

On the negative side, I have Arnold Chiari Malformation (ACM) and that means

that I should not lift heavy things. Well, by paralyzing the muscle strand that

was spasming (just the one particular strand it was injected into and not the

entire trapezius which has many strands), this caused the other strands of the

muscle to work harder.

And, while this working harder on the part of the other muscles, to make up for

the paralyzed person in most cases would be OK. In my case, it is not ok. I

have been having so much pain caused my my chiari being pulled on my the

paralyzed muscle. It is like my neck is carrying dead weight, and it's too

heavy for me.

So, I have been having pressure headaches, and pulling sensations at the base of

my skull. I awake at night in horrible pain. And, while the physical medicine

doctor who did the botox treatment I feel is a good doctor, he did not return

any of my calls, and my pain management doctor had to jump in.

My pain management doctor put me on 4mg of Tizanidine (a muscle relaxant) four

times a day to relieve the pains I am having. Sad to me, because the whole

point of the botox was to be able to stop taking medication, and instead it kind

of backfired and now I am taking way more meds.

Unfortunately, this botox treatment as I understand it, will last for a good 6-9

months. So, I guess I should expect to be on high doses of meds for the

remainder of the months.

I wish that Physical Medicine doctor would call me back. I realize there isn't

much he can do, but it is not very nice of him to cause this and then run. And,

I would like to think he has more honor than that.

Oh well, back to the drawing board. Oh, and the meds.

Jade

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