botox injections

[bell]

It has been awhile since I last wrote, busy summer and trying to get out of a depression slump because of headaches and head pain.
I received my first botox injections 4 months ago and my second set 3 weeks ago. Both times 13 injections with concetration on my neck. My neck is so lumpy, stiff and still tender!  It has taken 3 weeks to take effect. I am staring to feel relief. I am also off other drugs because off the side effects and they did not do any good becasuse I still had headaches. I still took taken Alleve, Tylenol or I mmitrex with headaches. So now I take an OTC when I get a headache and it seems to work.  I am still having headaches every couple of days, maybe the next couple of weeks will get better. 
I have not seen a bill yet from  m y Neurologist for the botox, but last time he did say that insurance was giving them a hard time and did not want to cover it, he used "left over" botox and would work on the insurance company. I have appt in Nov. for more, they do seem to work, but not dimish them completely, some relief is better then nothing and I feel so much better not on any other drugs. I am still looking forward to 2 year mark and hopefully feeling better all the way around. I know time will heal and it is amazing how long it takes to heal!!!!!!!!!!!   

[MISS CC]

I hadnt heard of this .. I have headaches but more so I have head pain .. let us know if it continues to help

[Janet]

Hi.

Bell....I know what you mean about the Botox. I used it and it did help. How it helped me was to stop the muscles from reacting to the initial localized nerve pain. In otherwords...it helped the pain from spreading.  I used the same type of OTC meds you did with the Botox. I used Maxalt instead of Immitrex but the same idea.

Janet

[Rc Moser]

Just hear on the new there is a class action law suit against Botox!  Headaches was mentioned! 

[Captain Deb]

Rc,
Could you clarify what news channel you were watching?  Would like to read more about this.

For me, Botox has given me more relief than anything else I have tried (or should I say, has been tried on me.)  I had my third round a few weeks ago.  Janet is right-- it keeps the pain from spreading across the top of my head, into my forehead, and behind my eye.  I still get an occasional occipital headache and neck pain, but it is nothing like it was before I started Botox.  My insurance refused to pay for it, as well, but after I won my disability claim, I was able to purchase affordable Medicare insurance, which approves it and pays 80%.  How ironic that the treatment for the condition that disabled me was only affordable after I was deemed by the gov't to be disabled.  Now that I have proper treatment I could probably work again if it wasn't for a few other issues that I didn't even have when I filed for disability.

Capt Deb

[Rc Moser]

 it was this morning just before I went out the doorto work, Can't remember which channel It was on but was one of the major morning news channels at 4:00AM. They mentioned headache's what caught my attention. Claims it don't releive them? you might try to google??

[Rc Moser]

found this on google.  google Botox if interested


Price for push? Botox maker settles charges, pays $600m
Natasha Singer, NYT News Service, Sep 3, 2010, 06.14am IST

Tags:food and drug administration|fda|botox|allergan
 Allergan, the maker of Botox, agreed to pay $600 million to settle charges that it illegally promoted and sold the drug through 2005 for unapproved uses like treating headaches.

That settlement, the latest in a continuing justice department crackdown on offlabel drug promotion by pharmaceutical companies, comes with an unusual postscript. In recent months, the Food and Drug Administration has been seriously weighing approval of Botox for treatment of chronic migraines, a remedy that has been cited as beneficial in new studies and which was ratified last month in UK.

The charges of illegal marketing cover the first half of this decade, before the FDA's review.

The government's civil complaint said Allergan had "illegally, vigorously and, without any thought to the possible negative health effects to which it subjected patients, promoted" Botox for uses that had not been deemed safe and effective by the FDA.

The company developed and put in place a wide-ranging marketing program, according to the complaint, that included paying kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Botox for conditions — like pain and severe spasms in the limbs of children with cerebral palsy — not included in the drug's label.
Found this by google
In a statement, Allergan said it agreed that its marketing from 2000 to 2005 had resulted in the use of Botox for unapproved uses, including the treatment of headache, pain, spasticity and juvenile cerebral palsy.


Read more: Price for push? Botox maker settles charges, pays $600m - UK - World - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Price-for-push-Botox-maker-settles-charges-pays-600m/articleshow/6483223.cms#ixzz0yT11FlDZ

[Captain Deb]

Just wanted to chime in on my Botox experience so far.  It is definitely worth giving it a shot, especially if meds are not doing the trick for you or are giving you difficult side effects. I am not talking about Botox once or twice, but at least three to 4 times of at least a dozen to 16 injections.  I had my third round, three months apart-- about a month ago and I have not been this headache-free since I woke up from surgery 7 1/2 years ago.  I seem to even have less headaches than I did BEFORE surgery.  Not to say that I am entirely headache-free.  I still get an occasional occipital headache which I can stop in a few hours with 2 Fioricet, an ice pack, and rest. I cannot take NSAIDS like ibuprophen or aleve at all any more due to tummy issues, hence the Fioricet, which is Tylenol with a mild dose of valium-like stuff in it.  Nothing like the rolling-around-crying-holding-my-head-and-wanting-to-DIE ones I was getting before, and I had about a hundred or so of those in the past 7 1/2 years.  I spent  thousands of $ on expensive meds--injectable Imitrex, Topamax, Depakote, even with insurance.

The funny thing is that Botox is what my neurologist mentioned to me on my second visit to him, but my insurance co refused to pay for it.  It was off label use at the time, but nowdays Allergan markets two different Botoxes--Botox Cosmetic and Botox for theraputic uses. It was $1200 a visit. But that was almost 8 years ago and with new information and studies some insurance cos. may have changed their tune.  When I got approved for disability, I got Medicare with it and as soon as I found out that Medicare would pay for it, I scheduled the injections. Since my last round of injections I have not once woke up in the middle of the night or in the morning with a headache, which were the absolute worst of the worst.



Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day to you wicked Wenches and swashbucklin' scallywags!

Capt Deb