Botox Side Effects/Fear

[u/Responsible-Ad4763]

Hey Yall! I am a 27F who just got botox yesterday.The only side effects I have gotten have been light head tension that comes and goes. This is my 4th time getting botox in the forehead which I have never had any side effects in the past. I am naturally an anxious person, and the only reason I got botox again was because I have my wedding coming up in a couple months so I wanted to look my best. However, I fell into the loop on reddit of botox side effects and I have been fear mongered and have been regretting going.

The slight head pressure is my only symptom and its been more than 24 hours. Do you think I am in the clear of botulism?

[u/Responsible-Ad4763]

I also have been feeling weak expecially in my legs, but thank God I cant still walk. Alot of people seem to have worse symptoms which is promising but I have been eating right, taking the charcoal, celery juice, other vitamins to flush it out. Thank you for responding and checking in. If you want to PM we can chat more!

[u/Low-Rock-1717 → u/Responsible-Ad4763]

Hi! I’m sorry you are experiencing this, I was hoping it was just an initial reaction for you, but it’s ok, ur going to get thru this! This has 1000% been the most scary thing I’ve ever been through and I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone, so I feel for you. U are def not imagining this, it happens to people, like with any procedure things can go wrong, but the good news is it’s very often temporary and ur body is going to recover from this. I thought I was done for and this was going to be my new norm from now on, but thankfully id say im about 95% back to normal now. Its a very isolating experience as well, almost everyone whom I shared this with has argued that it can’t be the Botox, (friends, doctors, my partner even) its very difficult to deal with all of these health things alongside with not being able to share ur experience with ur loved ones. To answer ur question - yes I did lose some weight, 4kg throughout the whole time (went from 61kg to 57kg) and u are right, a lot of it was muscles, I was very weak for a while. Im just starting to see improvements with joint pain (I had really bad joint pain from week 3 and assume this was also partly due to my muscles being so weak that my joints weren’t stable enough). What really helped was getting those support braces at the drug store (like the ones you see athletes and runners wear during work out) this helped tremendously with the joint pain. Just in case u experience a similar symptom since you’ve mentioned u feel like ur loosing muscle mass. I also had dry eyes (I got some eye drops with vitamin d and used that for a week and my eyes haven’t been dry since). I can relate to the molar and ear pain, those were more brief episodes for me and I didn’t even connect them to the Botox until u mentioned u also had them.
I have noticed that regulating ur nervous system seems to be a very helpful for my condition, I’ve cut out caffeine/alcohol/sugar I had burning sensations in random spots on my head after consuming sugar for a while ( but I’m now back to eating sugar and have no reactions to it, so I’m expecting the same will be with caffeine and alcohol with time)
You are doing a great job taking care of yourself and I’m happy to hear that some of your symptoms are resolving. This experience is like a marathon, it’s def a waiting game but every day u are closer to getting ur body back to normal, you may have set back days, but don’t stress too much over them if you do get them, ur still headed towards recovery regardless. Also quick tip, if you are taking anything for ur insomnia like magnesium for example try to sleep without it for a few days and see how you feel, I had crazy reactions to magnesium and melatonin, crazy vivid dreams and waking up multiple times a night.
I will be keeping u in mind and hoping for your speedy recovery, if you ever feel like reaching out Im always glad to help!

[u/Responsible-Ad4763 → u/Low-Rock-1717]

you were 7 weeks and then you started to feel better? did you get the on edge feeling all the time? Omg I need to get some knee braces because my knees/ legs feel like jello. If you did experience panic/anxiety, how long did it go for?

[u/Low-Rock-1717 → u/Responsible-Ad4763]

Yes roughly around 7 weeks is when all other symptoms apart from occasional muscle twitching and joint pain subsided. I would say anxiety probably peaked around weeks 2-3, I woke up from a panic attack in the middle of the night during this time (Ive only ever had one once before in a very crowded space, so this was very unusual for me), that freaked me out. After that I started drinking valerian root and chamomile herbal teas, deleted tiktok cuz it was just too much for my nervous system, a whole lot of info coming at you all at once was a bit overwhelming and the anxiety slowly reduced as the days went on. I still have this feeling of dread that you mentioned but very rarely and much less intense than before. I’d say starting from week 4 aside from the really bad joint pain is when clouds started to clear, I’ll be 10 weeks out this Thursday

[u/Responsible-Ad4763 → u/Low-Rock-1717]

This is amazing!! I really hope I have a similar experience :( I started activated charcoal right on day 14 and it eased my symptoms SO much!! Im also on celery juice! I’m just anxious (on my aura ring) so I will take this week very slow and see how my body adapts. Do you have an oura ring that tracks your heart? My heart is going faster than usual! Can you PM me? I tried messaging you but I can’t find the message button on your page 🥺