I am coming up due for my third round of Botox. It has made a huge difference in my migraines. It has saved my life and job. I was getting a migraine every 7-10 days. It would put me down for 3 days. I was missing a lot of work. I felt horrible because I was a slug at home. I could not get out of bed. I could not tolerate any light, noise or smells. I could not care for my family. It was extremely frustrating. I have tried dozens of meds and nothing worked. Finally I found a new neurologist and suggested Botox. They submitted it to my insurance and it was approved. My first round gave me relief for about a month and then I started with mild headaches. These progressed to mild migraines before my three months were up. Next I had my second round. I have been migraine free. I have had a couple of mild headaches but nothing that slowed me down. I am due in two weeks for my third round and I could not be happier. I hope that others read this and are able to try it. I hope it will be as successful for you all as it was to me.
Hi there, has the botox helped then with the frequency of the migraines and maybe the intensity? What about dizziness, vertigo and off balance (if you got that) has it helped with that.
Great to hear a success story.
Angela
it has greatly reduced the severity and the frequency. I did have vertigo but it stopped with Klonopin which was started before the botox.
So have you been able to come off the Klonnopin? If they help dizziness I’m willing to try. I heard they give the injections in the back of the head is this true? I had botox for my lines for cosmetic purposes but I thought it would help me too because I squint a lot. I’m not sure if it did anything but I didn’t have it done for migraines. My doctor said no to it. Maybe I’ll ask him again. I don’t have many migraines that are debilitating but I suffer from the constant dizziness and vertigo.
Sorry for the late reply. Been busy with a funeral. Amazingly the stress did not bring on a Migraine. Another good sign that the Botox is working.
I have not come off the Klonopin because it seems to be controlling my vertigo.
I go for my next round this Thursday. Not looking forward to the injections but looking forward to the holidays migraine free. Keep your fingers crossed. I am afraid to be so optimistic. So many things have worked briefly and then stopped. This has to be the answer because this is the only option I had left.
Again, I pray that my posts here encourage others to ask to try it and that you all have the same success that I have. I feel like I have hit the lottery. I have my life back.
I missed some of your questions. There are a total of between 30-40 injections. They start with the face. The go above the brow, in the temple area along the hairline at the top of your forehead, in the crown of your head, down both sides of the back of the neck and across the shoulders. Many people cringe when they hear this but in my opinion they have not experienced a true migraine. The discomfort of these injections are a small price to pay in exchange for my life back. As I have mentioned in the past, my migraines put me down for three solid days and at their worst point they were coming every 7-10 days. I even had an incident with one of the injections where it went in the wrong area of my brow because the doctor was talking to me while she gave me the injections and I moved my eyebrows while I was talking. I am very expressive. Anyway, it hit the wrong spot and the muscle for my eyebrow dropped. So one was high and the other was low. I looked like Colonel Klink. The incident was reported to the manufacturer who kept in touch with me weekly. One of the questions that I was asked was would I return to the doctor and would I continue the injections. My answer was yes to both. It was not the doctors fault and if the injections got rid of my migraines then looking light a freak was considerably less embarrassing than sunglasses and a hoodie or returning to work after calling off work for one of my “headaches” Many people understood but some do not. They think that a migraine is like a headache and one should just “suck it up” Everyone has different signs and symptoms with their migraines. Some are worse than others but it is not the same as a headache. A headache is tolerable. A migraine usually is not for most. I have told people that if you have to ask the difference between a headache and a migraine then you have never experienced a migraine. IMHO
I don’t get the horrible migraine headache although when I do get a headache no advil or tylenol will touch it which actually IS a migraine so my doctor tells me. But I"m suffering horribly with vertigo and dizziness that has just come back out of the blue after a year. I was hoping botox would help with that.
Leshurd,
I wish I could give you some input on botox and vertigo but mine was pretty much resolved when I started the Botox. Now it is gone. I cannot say with any certainty if the Botox helped with it. I hope it gives you relief. There are so many here with extreme vertigo that would love to know if it is successful for the dizzys. Please keep us up to date.
OTC’s did not help with any of my headaches either. In fact, they made them worse. I would get rebound that was more sevee than the last.
Has anyone had any lucky getting botox funded by the NHS in the UK?? OR had any botox privately in the UK?
My new Neuro suggested Botox if our treatment plan doesn’t work, he said he needs a paper trail showing failed treatments before insurance would approve Botox (because of the high cost). I’m hopeful something will work for me!!
As far as the vertigo, the idea is that if you stop the migraine, it stops the vertigo… and everything else that comes with it.
Hahaha! If you stop the migraine you stop the vertigo and everything that comes with it! God doesn’t that sound awesome? Sounds so easy sometimes. I sure wish it was! I would pay any amount of money, hell I might even trade this for chronic pain. The whole thing is frustrating and ruining my life
Made it thru the holidays so far migraine and headache free despite some stressful days at work that normally would have definitely induced a migraine.
I am so grateful for Botox. I cannot sing its praises enough.
FYI I did have two days of the dizzies that came and went but I was under a lot of stress. All seems to be resolved.
Woke up yesterday morning with pain in the back of my neck and some fuzziness. By afternoon I had developed a migraine. This is the first and only bad migraine I have had since I started Botox seven months ago. The only two things I can link to it is that i have started drinking caffeine again. And the last two nights I missed my supplements. Most importantly my magnesium.
I really thought after 7 months I was out of the woods. This migraine has been a roller coaster since December 31st. I can get rid of it for a day or two with steroids and then it comes back. Today it came back with a vengeance and landed me in the urgent care for an injection of Toradol and sublingual Zofran. My doctor called in a course of three solid days of decadron. It should work but I respond horribly to the steroids. I will be wired but exhausted the days that I am on them and then crash and burn when I come off. I have muscle fatigue and exhaustion. Needless to say I am out of work and it is not appreciated. We are getting slammed. One girl sucked it up at work the other day with the flu. She vomited three times and then went to the ER. For medicated and came back to work. I am just not that driven to suffer like that. We are nurses and serious mistakes can happen when you are ill. You just are not thinking right.
I had my first round of Botox June 6, 2012. It has had its ups and downs but has overall given me back my life. In the last year I have only missed 5 days of work because of my migraines. This is incredible. It is still a lot of work but nothing like before. Without FMLA I would be without a job.
I had a rough winter with many headaches and one very long headache/migraine roller coaster that lasted about three weeks. In March I had another round of Botox and have not had a single headache or migraine since and trust me when I say I have pushed the limits. I flew to Jamaica, I drank alcohol for the first time in a long time and I have eased back into caffeine. So far I have been completely migraine and headache free.
Botox has restored my life.
I do still get the occasional dizzys but they are a quick sensation of the ground rushing up and then it is gone. It can happen multiple times a day but it is not enough to affect my day to day life. I have started taking Ativan again to sleep. I only take it on nights that I have to work the next day. If I am off the next day I do not use it. I think the dizzys are a result of going on and off the Ativan. I still take low dose Klonopin twice a day too.
I hope that this post helps others who have not had any relief from any thing else. I had tried every med in the books for migraines to no avail. I was considering surgery.
FYI–I do not have wrinkles but I think that the way the injections are given that it would not help. I don’t think they are placed the same way as they would be for cosmetic Botox.
Hi there, it is so great reading your story.
I have suffered with migraine almost daily since I was a child and the MAV started 4 years ago.
I completely get the trying new meds and for a while they work and then all symptoms come back. A vicious circle and so frustrating.
I am 40 next year and this condition has stopped me from extending my family as Im too scared to get pregnant and not be able to have the meds and get it all under control . There are mixed reviews on people being well or worse when they are pregnant.
I’ve gone back private again to move things forward.
They have firstly suggested Occipital nerve blocks and if not successful botox.
I try to stay open minded but it does push your anxiety through the roof and cause a more adverse affect when yet another treatment doesnt work.
Thank you for sharing your story 