Friday, July 29, 2011

Botox: 2 months in

I really do like my neurologist. He is a good doctor.  He is the only doctor I've ever had who has called me repeatedly to check on me.  I understand that as his first botox patient he may have a professional interest in how I am doing as much as anything else.  But regardless of his motives - I feel good that he calls me to check up.

I have been keeping track of not only the days I have headaches, but the severity.  My scale is 1-5 (I stole my scale from the book "Chocolate & Vicodin".)  5 is obviously the most severe.  The month prior to the botox shots I had 2 level 5 headaches, 7 level 4 headaches, 10 level 3 headaches, 7 level 2 headaches, and 1 level 1 headache.  Not a single day without any sort of headache at all.  The first month after the botox injections I had only 1 level 5, 8 level 4's, 10 level 3's, 8 level 2's, and 1 level 1 again.  Still a headache every single day, though.  Still it would seem like an improvement. 

I had told my neurologist I didn't think it was helping as I still was having headaches.  I knew that it didn't always make them go away completely, but should make them occur less frequently and with less inensity. 

Is it working?  I'm still not sure.  And month 2 tells a very different story than month 1.
6 level 5 headaches -four of those in a row :(  10 level 4 headaches, 9 level 3's, 3 level 2, and not a single level 1.  Also, a headache every single day for that month. 

(In case I didn't already point this out - these botox shots are into muscle and the botox shots the plastic surgeon does are into nerves - so the outcomes from the treatments could be very different.)

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