Spasticity and Splints - Part 8: Botox (2)

Having Botox for my shoulder is relatively simple and painless, and having it in my forearm is not too bad either, but I hated having it in my thumb because it hurt like a bitch! I think it’s the worst pain I’ve experienced. Don’t take my word for it, but I think this is because it’s such a small group of muscles. To inject the Botox for my thumb, my mum had to hold my hand open and force my thumb out to the side to enable the doctor to inject the muscle in the base of my thumb.

The benefits of Botox vary from person to person, including the time it takes to take effect and the length of time it is effective for. I can still remember the first time I had Botox injections… I think it was October 2015. I was in the grey area of changing from paediatrics to adults. The person who did my first set of injections was a Paediatrician and she wanted to see how my body reacted to the Botox.

The doctor said that it would take about two weeks to take effect, but it was almost instantaneous. Normally, my hand was in a tight fist and my thumb would either be stuck in the palm of my hand with my fingers wrapped tightly over the top, or my thumb would be in between my fingers, like the photo to the right shows.

I had to sit in the waiting room for about 15 minutes after the injections to make sure that I didn’t have any side-effects. As I sat in the waiting room, 5 minutes past, and my mum said to look at my hand… I looked down, and my fingers were completely open!

The next 6 months were amazing. I was able to put my hand flat on the floor and crawl around relatively normally (well, normal for me anyway!). I was even able to hold objects in my hand and let go when I wanted to. When there was no Botox in my hand, it tended to grab hold of things that I didn’t want to grab. I swear that it had a mind of its own at times! It would grab anything within reach, including my hair and my dog’s hair. It doesn’t bother me as much when I pull my own hair because I can just keep still until I let go or until someone comes to help me, but I hate getting hold of my dog’s hair. I know that dogs are clever and they know that I can’t help it, but it’s horrible! We’ve been incredibly lucky with all of our dogs in that sense.

When I needed another lot of injections 6 or 7 months down the line, we couldn’t get through to the doctor who did my first set, so we asked my consultant and she has been doing my Botox injections ever since.

To start with, the effects only started to wear off about two weeks before the next lot. Weirdly enough, the Botox in my shoulder lasted a year until I needed another dose, and it has been like that up until recently.