Botox, Round 3/How are your Botox experiences going?

Got my third round of Botox this morning. I am anxious to see how it plays out this time. The first time I got it was so amazing - I would go 10-12 days at a time without even a twinge of pain, then have a shorter maybe 8-9 hour migraine, then go another week with no pain, etc. I felt like a whole new, normal(!) person. As the first time wore off and the headaches started returning, I counted the days til the next round of injections. Sadly, the second round did not work at all. It trigged a 3 day hellish migraine for me, and things never went well from there. I only had a small handful of entirely pain-free days in the 3 months following.

I feel like there may be some confounding factors with the second round. For instance, I asked him to inject less in my neck because it made it difficult to hold certain positions during dance practice. I also went straight to work after the injections and took basically no break at all, and in fact ended up working a 12 hour day that day. And finally, it has been summer in North Carolina, which is generally insanely hot, humid and filled with storms and pressure drops.

It's hard for me to tell whether these are truly confounding factors or whether I'm just trying to rationalize things. After the stunning success I had with the first round and the pitiful response to the second, it's hard to allow myself to believe that I'll never have 10-12 days of no migraine pain in a row again. So I am really, really, reaaaaaaallly hopeful that this third round works out, because if it doesn't I'm really not sure what the next plan of attack is going to be for me.

For those of you that have had Botox, what have your experiences been? Do you get a consistent response with each set of injections? Do some work better than others? What's your response been like?

I know that these questions have been posed on the forum before, but it's been a little while and I'd like the current news from you all.

Hi! I just got my second round yesterday. First round was mostly head with a bit of neck. Came in yesterday after a bit over 3 months and since my forehead was still mostly frozen (ie. "working") he wouldn't even touch my head, but wanted to go ahead and do all 100 units in the neck. First time I got a disappointing 1 week of 50% relief. Neuro thought it likely couldn't have been the Botox, but thats the best week I've had in 5 years! Nothing else was going on. He thinks chances are slim it would work on subsequent tries, and only if the neck helps would he suggest doing head + neck on a third time. I had always read it had a build up effect and I'd want to do all the spots at 3 intervals of 3 months to give it a fair try (my vote would have been to wait until 4 months or so when it had worn off and to do the head), but he has a lot of training in Botox and I trust him, so I'll go with it. Botox was a longshot for my non-migraine condition anyways, and its also more of a longshot for it to work after the first time.

Hope you have some success! You are in a better scenario than me as far as you got great relief the first time, so it should just take some trials to try to get close to that again. I do read of some varied responses though. Some people never do as well as the first time, results fade over time (tolerance?), or its sporadic due to assumed variations in injection sites and technique. I waited years to finally have insurance cover this so I'm disappointed to say the least, but nothing else has consistently worked for me either, so its nothing new. I'll take whatever I can get. At least no side effects besides a bit of pain and soreness at first. Cost shouldn't be too bad for me in the end either (although I haven't seen any bills). Having a bad pain day today so I'm curious to see how this goes. Not too hopeful with only my neck done, but then again I have a screwy neck with the head stuff (lots of trigger points, muscle tightness, spasms if I am not in muscle relaxers, etc). Best wishes.

I have just had another lot of injections last week and so far so good. I had a great response last time (No neck injections but more parietal?? injection sites).

My neuro added more injection sites. He said they are around the Parietal Areas. Not 100% sure what this means, but it seems to work for me.

Maybe this wiki page explains a bit:
"The parietal branch of superficial temporal artery (posterior temporal), larger than the frontal, curves upward and backward on the side of the head, lying superficial to the temporal fascia, and anastomosing with its fellow of the opposite side, and with the posterior auricular and occipital arteries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_branch_of_superficial_temporal_artery

I think I have had about 5 or 6 rounds of Botox and sometimes I have to have a break because it starts to become ineffective.
My Neuro told me that it can depend on the batch that they use. I found that sometimes the bigger the dose, the less effective and we had to try and find the right amount. Maybe if you get too much it might not work.

I like the Botox because I seem to suffer with side effects on meds and Botox doesn't really have side effects for me.

I find it really hard to cope if I have a few weeks of relief. I know that sounds strange, but if I get a migraine when I have been migraine free, I seem to lose it a little bit. I think my pain threshold changes and I have to learn to cope all over again. But I do enjoy being able to have those times when I can do what I want.