chipmunk face

Hi ABB, I am so sorry to hear that after a year things are still awful for you. My heart goes out to you, as I know how disabling this experience is. It appears we are all suffering very similar effects from botox, loss of fat and muscle atrophy and consequently sagging skin. It is nearly 11 months for me, and I am still not fully recovered. I have received a private email from TBF and she has been really poorly with pneumonia on top of it all. I hope and pray that she recovers soon as she has been a rock to us all. There have been some improvements in the past couple of months, in that my face has lifted slightly and the muscle atrophy is beginning to improve also. But it is so painfully slow, and is still nowhere near full recovery. The neurologist I saw said it can take up to two years to fully recover. In some ways this gives me hope, as I think this is not the final outcome, but in other ways I think it is an awfully long time to wait. Aliesmom, you are doing all the right things, and it will improve from where you are now. Love and healing to you all xx

Hi Shabbygirl, I have had exactly the same results as you using Botox. And like yourself the swelling at the top of the cheeks lasted a good 6-7 months, and I had cheek droop and undereye loose skin. I have to say, that things will improve for you, but it will happen very slowly. Only in the past month or so am I seeing significant improvements in the cheek ptosis, so please don't give up hope. It will go back to normal. My result was extreme as I had a huge dose in the wrong area, which caused muscle atrophy etc., and it is still improving at 10 months. You are a few months behind me, so your body is still in the early stages of the healing process, where the nerves are regenerating and connecting to the muscles. Love Chipmunkface x

Hi fellow botox victims, just to keep you updated. I visited a neurologist today (at 38 weeks) and he gave me the wonderful news that I DO NOT HAVE PERMANENT NERVE DAMAGE!! Thought I'd let you know as I was told that I did have this by a GP I visited a month ago, which has since thrown me into a deep depression. I took before and after pictures along to the consultation (taken a week before the botox, a week after and one 8 months later). The neurologist thought that the extreme redness and swelling of cheeks and eyes were due to a severe allergic reaction from the botox. This swelling lasted 6 months! Now the swelling has gone down I am left with red marked sagging skin and loss of muscle and fat (particularly over the top and side of the cheek bones) on one side more than the other making it look asymmetric. However, he does think that facial exercises will help to stimulate the growth of new nerve fibres, which should inturn build up facial muscle and fill out the skin again. He suggested that I should avoid having any treatment for another 2 years, as my face will continue to change, and it could make things worse. I'm not sure I can wait that long looking like this, but I will wait another year. I do believe there is hope that with time, exercise and detoxing all our faces will improve...but I think it is going to take a long time for some of us, but hopefully a lot less time for most of you xx

Hi Alliesmom, it does sound like you have facial droop from the botox injected for crows feet (either too medially or too low on the cheek), which has weakened the eye muscle too much and consequently affected the cheek and upper lip muscle. I too still have facial droop and it is still not right unfortunately after 37 weeks. Although, I think yours will improve in the next few months. I would suggest you start detoxing ASAP. As I think the sooner you get the botox out of your system, the sooner the muscle will recover. Have you read uncool's posts. She has a brilliant detoxing program that I think will rid the body of this dreadful toxin. I wish I knew about this during the early days as I think I would have recovered by now. I also think doing facial exercises are good, as long as you are not stretching the skin...just do them in gentle and gradual movements to begin. I wish you a speedy recovery xx

Hi TBF, I too thank you for all the valuable information, support and encouragement you have given me over the past few months. I really hope and pray that your face and your confidence will be restored again. Hopefully, this will happen naturally with time. I was just reading a forum about people who had received botox for facial spasms, and neary all of them had extreme facial or eyelid droop. One woman was told that she had permanent facial nerve damage at 5 months, and a year and a half later it recovered to 90 percent normal, and she is still improving very slowly. This has given me a bit of hope, but like yourself, there are days where I think it will never recover. I think detoxing the body as uncool suggested seems a logical idea, as I think the toxin remains in the system for a long time. I think one study found 50 percent of the toxin in rat brains six months after injection to the face, so there must be even more residual botox in the injection areas. I am going to wait a year and a half to 2 years before I plan on any type of reconstructive surgery, as I think it may take this long for the body to fully heal. Please hang in there for all us xxx