Botox: Stories

To ease forehead and scowl lines. Have been doing this for 10 years now. A great MD - Years of experience and achieves natural, discrete results. I'm one of the fortunate; treatments usually last 9 to 12 months for me. This proved to be a dismaying disadvantage 2 years ago, however: A tiny amount of Botox was ejected from a site by a skin contraction after the doctor had injected it. He'd exercised every conventional caution, but when he removed the sponge from the injection site, the ejected Botox ran into my eye before he could catch it with his sponge. Within 24 hours, my eyelid was nearly closed. It didn't begin to open until about 6 months later. It was a full year before the eye regained its fully-opened position.

Any medical treatment has inherent risks. I continue to be treated by the same doctor - He's an incredible artist with a long history of of achieving natural-looking results for many of San Francisco's wealthiest residents. His fees are mid-range and not reflective of the income of many of his wealthy clients. I very much respect his ethics. (He will not, for example, perform any procedure for any patient if he feels the results will not be natural-looking.)

I feel for the woman who ended up with a drooping eyelid after her Botox treatment. Hope that she'll do careful research on the doctor she chooses and get references for him/her if/before she's treated again. I hope too, that her eyelid will, as mine did, return to its normal position as the paralyzing effect of the Botox wears off.

And by the way: Not a single person said anything about my drooping eyelid. I'm often before the public and must meet frequently with clients. I assume that most people probably thought I'd suffered a stroke and had the good grace not to remark on my altered appearance. Botox veterans may have guessed that there had been a treatment mishap; if so, they, too, had the savvy to say nothing. It was only after my eye had returned to normal that a few people remarked on how well I was looking and expressed their pleasure with the fact that I appeared to be doing so well. May the woman with the drooping lid have the same good luck that I did!