Dear Botox, we used to be good together, but I’m through with you, Boo.

I used to get Botox from a nurse and had always been happy with it. I switched to a doctor and was still happy until a minor paralysis incident with the lower third of my face. I highly advise anyone who gets cosmetic Botox avoid the lower third of your face. The good news is my doctor did everything right. He even consulted with another physician to make sure I got the right diagnosis. This I found to be most impressive. I 100% love this and will continue seeing this physician because that kind of good practice deserves my business. Really excellent. He used fillers to close the gap where I was drooling which enabled me to drink from typical vessels. This was a major quality of life improvement after a problematic case - something that is always a possibility when messing with Botox, especially in the lower third of your face.
Having never used fillers in my lips before, I discovered the filler swelled my lip up and I felt like a psychotic clown. That dissipated within a week, thank god. A nurse told me most patients like that and wish they could retain it. 4 out of 5 friends agree, this was not even a marginally good look for this particular face.
The paralysis completely went away after about 4 1/2 months, but in the meantime I think I learned some new, jacked up way of smiling. It took a couple months of not being paralyzed for my face to feel fairly normal again, but fairly normal again I did feel! The exceptions: I had become very critical of the lower third of my face (with all the scrutiny and obsession). I believed the side of my lip where the filler was used was larger, so I went in to get that corrected. He used a different kind of filler that had beautiful results (and made me a believer in lip fillers). But the point here relative to Botox is that the effects can be more than what you might think you’re bargaining for. Read the form you sign when you get this work done, folks, ‘cause your doctor’s job is a “practice”. No matter how great your practitioner is, they are but mere mortals. They don’t have x-ray vision to see how the musculature in your face is laid out. If they did, they’d be the only doctor this side of the Mississippi with that super power. As patients, we also have a responsibility to ourselves to know what results we want and what risks we’re willing to take to achieve those results. Don’t kid yourself on the risks of Botox, as there are many. In my experience, they can waterfall. It didn’t snowball because I followed my doctor’s instructions, and was accepting of my situation. Sometimes the best solution is to wait.
Having decided that Botox on the lower third was not for me, but also wholeheartedly rejecting frown lines, I went in for more Botox. This time the forehead was my target. I asked for a light peppering of Botox, enough to preserve the motion, but rid me of my “resting...face”. The doctor provided an extremely discounted treatment as even more compensation for my previous bad experience. Come to find out, I just don’t like Botox anymore. After the effects set in, I found my face looked backwards in the mirror. We all have facial asymmetry. If you’ve ever looked at a mirror image of your mirror image (or wondered why in God’s name your selfies absolutely disgust you) you might recognize what asymmetries you have in your face. Well, After my last Botox session I noticed a serious dropping of one eyebrow. Maybe an existing asymmetry has been aggravated. Maybe the doctor tried to correct an asymmetry and the effect was an over-correction. Either way, without Botox I have an overly-expressive face. With it, my regularly crooked face becomes overly so, at least in my eyes. I don’t like the way I look. I pretty much always have this stank eye look on my face now One eyebrow is pitched up to the sky, emoting to its heart’s content. The other hugs the neighboring upper eyelid like lovers before the apocalypse. Any spontaneous surprise look I flash to the camera just looks like an extreme stank eye. March was my first regrettable Botox treatment. We’re now in October and I’m waiting out my second, consecutive, regrettable Botox treatment. I think it’s safe to say that the burden of responsibility lies squarely in my court - I don’t like the result I get from Botox anymore, so I’m out on Botox. I would love to love it, but it’s time for me to drop this treatment (not the Doctor - just the Botox) like an abusive boyfriend.