Hemifacial Spasm :: Botox Or Surgery At 66?
Feb 12, 2016
I have had this condition for almost ten years and although not painful it has altered my life by reducing my confidence.
i recently enquirer when at one of my Botox appointments if there were any new treatments and was told that surgery was now more successful.I have been offered an operation on the N.H.S. And am going through the decision .As I am quite a fit 66 year old I really don't want to be having Botox for possibly another 20 years!
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i am suffering HFS from five years. my one eye twitch very little from which i have suffered to see movement the things from eye. i suffered little twiching problem. in MRI scan report some error found. dr says for MVD operation.
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I have just been diagnosed with Hemifacial Spasms at the age of 46 - since suffering from daily fluttering in my left eye. Thankfully at this stage it is still only affecting the left eye (I have had this since May last year) and hasn't spread anywhere else. I am beside myself with panic that I am going to end up abnormally deformed and disfigured very soon as it does start to include the rest of the face. Can anyone give a complete novice regarding HFS some advice. I only got the letter yesterday and don't see my Consultant until April and I am out of my mind at the outlook prognosis and what to expect. Is it really going to leave me looking disfigured permanently?
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A little over twelve years , directly after I had a stent implant in one of the main arteries to my heart, the left side of my face developed a twitch. I mentioned the twitch to my cardiologist, and he said, "We all get little twitches. it will go away. It didn't. It progressively became worse and effected my trigeminal nerve. The first neurologist that I was referred to recommended botox. All that I got out of that was the left side of my face being, numb, droopy, twitchy and painful. I went to several doctors and dentists in Spokane. The dentists told me that my teeth were not causing the pain and the neurologists kept prescribing me the same prescriptions. I also tried physical therapy and acupuncture. I had two teeth extracted with the hope that it would relieve the pain. I decided to get proactive and read about microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery. I found that they performed MVD in Seattle at the University of Washington. I e-mailed a detailed description of my symptoms, and they made an appointment to see me. The surgeon (Dr. Rostomily) that I met with asked me, "How long I have you lived with that condition." I told him, "A little over seven years," he said, "I don't know how you have done it." Fourteen days later I had the surgery and when I woke up I was free of the twitch. That was in 2010. I still have the nerve pain on the left side of my face. I am positive that if the neurologists in Spokane had referred me to the U of W Medical Center once that I was diagnosed, that I would also be free of the pain. Last week I started seeing a Physical Therapist (PT) and after the session there was improvement. Hopefully the sessions with the PT will eventually lead to a pain free life. My advice: If you develop HFS and it gets worse, don't delay ... get MVD surgery.
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After 15 years with Achalasia and difficulty with food passing into my stomach I finally had Botox injections yesterday. During the endoscopy the dr said the valve at the bottom of my oesophagus was really tight and he's hoping the Botox will help me.
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Basically in april 2015 i went to consultant for pile treatment, he advised me to have them treated by injection, i went ahead with this procedure, for a week i was fine then i noticed the itching and pile/pain had returned went back to my consultant he told me he thinks it was a fissure and to take creams and come back to him in 3 weeks time for further consultation.
alas 2 weeks later i was in severe pain and discomfort and phoned the consultants office that i was in bad pain and was told the consultant was on holidays and would not be back for a further week!
at this stage i was told by my doctor to attend hospital a+e for emergency
treatment ,this i did and was told to present myself at the hospital fasting from night before to see a new consultant---Phew it gets worse!
arrived at the hospital new consultant in fairness said he would put me under a full GA and see what is going on there
the following morning he told me yes indeed the piles were back there was one internal and one external and that i was better off going for the laser treatment called THD, which i booked in for the following week this was at this stage mid may had the procedure and for 2 weeks felt great
however on the third week i was in severe pain in the anal area and knew something was wrong (bearing in mind i was told the THD procedure has a 90%success rate..presented myself back to the consultant in hospital had to go under a full ga again he told me afterwards that the procedure had not worked for me for fu..s sake i was one of the 10% that it did not work for so i was booked in for the following week to have the piles which i was now told one of them was thrombosed removed by surgery so have had this done in mid june and have been in terrible pain since, especially after bm to the point where all i could do is sit/lie in the house all day taking pain killers stool softeners and baths every day. every time i phoned the consultant i was told it takes time to heal so after 7 weeks of severe pain id had enough, i went to my doctor got a letter of him to see the consultant urgently as i was in severe pain meet with the consultant am now booked in again for early next week this is what he said the wound is healing however it is a time thing, he will have a further look at me to see if there is something else causing this awful pain he said there is no fissure but wants to give me a botox injection in the anal area to help with the healing, can anyone please advise with this as i do not want to get any worse pain than i am in presently sorry for the long rant but this is actually what happened to me it has changed my life whereby in the last 6 months being in terrible pain and discomfort and am now wary about this botox injection
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I am 25 female and have been suffering with hemorrhoids for years, 8 I think now, they resulted in a nasty skin tag and when I thought it couldn't get worse, I have now had a fissure for over a year.
Anyway, after many GP visits etc, and fainting from pain, I finally got put on the NHS waiting list for botox and skin tag removal. I thought to myself this is great to get this done and will solve all my problems, as I can't continue life as it is now, right? I got a date sent to me last week for the surgery, meant to be today, much quicker than I thought (Surely they would have wanted to review before, the Surgeon hasn't seen me in over 6 months?!) but after reading so many horrible posts about Botox I postponed it, so they will be sending a new date. But before I go ahead I really hope lots of you can advise me on your experience and give me information.
It is painful for me every day, I almost faint sometimes from the pain. And for some reason for the past 2 weeks, I have lots of blood during EVERY SINGLE BM - why now?? And is this something I should be worried about if it is every single time?
I am tip top about diet and exercise, I only weigh 54kg, I am healthy and active all the time!
The advice that I really want from you all - should I do this botox? Or should I accept life as it is now?? [sad] could things get a lot worse if I go for Botox?
Also I don't know if I get 'spasms', what are spasms? I am in pain for a long while after a BM is that what they are?
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My wife has been diagnosed with SOD and has been offered botox injections for it. Has anyone had experience of this or got an information on it.
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I have suffered from migraines since I was 9. These are the drugs I have tried:
-Metoprolol which did nothing just lowered my already low blood pressure
-Topamax, it worked amazingly until my hair started falling out
-Amitriptyline which worked but all I wanted to do was sleep and eat
-Nortriptyline which gave me a headache
-Wellbutrin, worked until I had a Steven-Johnson reaction and am still waiting 4 weeks later for my taste buds to grow back.
-Botox, total waste of my $280, except that I had couldn't move my forehead muscles, lol.
Then my doc wanted me to try depakote, which I drew the line at! All of these toxic medications and I was back at square 1. My hubby did research and out of 300 reviews of BUTTERBUR (all natural), they were almost all positive. It did say might take a month to work also. I was having migraines daily. The first day I took it, no migraine. I was shocked and relieved. I am now on day 8 and yesterday I had the teensiest migraine ever so I also took a feverfew, which according to Dr Oz and internet research, helps with migraines. It went away. I hope this is the solution. So tired of medications with horrible side effects. Butterbur is also used as an antispasmodic/muscle relaxer and I have noticed since taking it i have had no back pain, and I sleep so sound at night (used to wake up 4-5 times a night).
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I've had a squint all my life (30 years) had two previous surgeries that did not work. My right eye turns inward.
Recently I was referred to hospital for Botox treatment. This was carried out 9 days ago.
My eye is now straight. (Yay) I am however suffering from double vision when I look to the left and what I can only describe as slight 'ghost' double images (not constant) that seems to appear randomly and when looking in any direction,
Has anyone had Botox and experienced something similar? I'm just looking for reassurance that the double vision will pass and I can continue with the Botox treatment?
The botox kicked in 3 days after it was administered so I've only had double vision for about 6 days.
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In 2003 I had really painful headaches so bad I could hardly put my head on a pillow, pretty scary as I do not suffer from headaches. Then as I was eating bowl of cereal I kept missing my mouth and realised I couldn't feel my lips or tongue as though I had been given dentist injection. My sister took me to hospital thinking I was having a stroke, this was the first time I had heard of Bell's palsy and I was given steroids, i was very tired and it was an effort to do anything like eat, speech, it did take three months to go.
february 2014 I got a rash on my stomach which spread to my neck, to my back, to my feet, then to my scalp and then my ears, I was in agony, it was urticaria. Whilst trying to cope with this I then got Bell's palsy again, possibly due to an immune system at a low. However it has taken a lot longer to recover this time. Eighteen months later and I still have a twitchy eye and lopsided smile. I am now considering Botox, has anyone here used Botox to correct any of the nerve damage left after palsy and if so what are your thoughts?
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For GCA, I just dropped from 40 to 30 msg of prednisone. Suddenly I thought I was having a heart attack. The righting pain on chest and back would not let up. We were told to go to the ER where after a second hour and medical help while hooked up to who knows, the pain began to ease. I am now on antacids and tums. Eileen, I think I dropped too many mgs. I love the super go slowly taper, no more than 10% drop. Now I have to convince my rheumy. Has anyone else had severe spasms? I did not know what was happening .
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I was diagnosed with gallstones last 2014 but I only had my gallbladder removed through open cholecystectomy recently last November 29, 2015. The surgeons placed a t-tube drain and discharged me with it. They scheduled me for cholangiogram December 17, 2015 but the result showed that there's still a faint filling in the common bile duct so they scheduled for follow-up cholangiogram on January 4, 2016. During the second cholangiogram, this time there was a distinct pain during the procedure so they had to stop it. Two hours after, I know something was wrong because I felt cold then my temperature shoot up to 38.9 degree Centigrade. I felt slight pressure at the lower abdomen like I feel an urge to defecate and a few minutes I vomited. I was hospitalized, given antibiotics and hydrated. My doctor told me that it was an expected outcome after a cholangiogram. He said he would refer me to a hepatobiliary surgeon. I was checked by the specialist and told me that basing on the results there's still fragments left that's why a SPASM occurred during the cholangiogram. He's gonna perform a t tube choledochotomy. As of the moment, I noticed that I lost weight (8 lbs) after my hospitalization, continuously experienced itchiness and bitter after taste during meals. I also felt an on and off tingling sensation just below my operative site. Do I need to ask for second opinion?
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I am sitting at work, like always, when all of a sudden.... inside my head (in the top, middle, and behind my forehead) I began to feel what seemed to be a muscle spasm. What? Rationalizing, I think... Our brains are muscles. Right? So it could be a muscle spasm. Whoa... I feel dizzy and lightheaded for a little bit. Now, I feel like my head is full (stuffed full) of cotton or something. It isn't in my ears. It wasn't my eyes. It was "in my head". WOW.
I experienced this sensation of by brain shaking that was followed by dizziness. The "brain shake" felt like a jolt and then vibration/spasm that lasted about 5 seconds. I feel like the room is spinning and tilting and I was about to fall over (even though I was sitting down). The dizziness lasted about 2 minutes or so. The weird feeling of fullness in my head is still there.
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Does anyone experience body spasms kind of like your whole body wants to stretch and you can't stop it this only happens to me during the night .
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I have horrible muscle spasms in my back, sometimes they seem like cramps though. I turned 18 about a month ago, will a doctor prescribe me a muscle relaxer for this? Is there a different class of medication to look into that might be more effective? My dad recommended baclofen. I have read about some health complications using this though. Not asking how to get a RX. WILL they write me one or blow me off as an 18 year old drug seeker, and WILL it help (possibly). I've done trigger point injections, deep tissue PT for years and nothing helps. The problem comes back like a week after stopping and my insurance only covers x appointments. My therapist noticed my ribs keep elevating up and need popped back in place. This may be due to muscle spasms? I'm just tired. Tired of pain, doctors not doing anything, and nothing changing.
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Ok. 6 yrs ago I was diagnosed with erosive gastritis/mild esophagitis. I had a recent endoscopy which showed almost normal . Anyhow, a few months ago I was sleeping one night and i was awaken violently with the sensation something was choking my throat like a spasm I swallowed hard and the spasm went away . Any thoughts as to what that episode was??
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My symptoms are very sharp chest and back pain often also going around the ribs and they do feel like a heart attack. The only thing that relieves them is if I can make myself burp over and over to release the contraction. It seems what brings mine on is positional in nature - bending forward, even slightly or waking in the middle of the night with an attack, probably from bending forward in the fetal position without awareness. I was given nitroglycerin, which helps some but I wonder if anyone has found other things that work that do not involve drugs. I read somewhere that peppermint oil in a little water works but when I'm in the middle of one of these severe attacks I do not have the wherewithal to go get peppermint water. They feel that dire in nature, like it has to be relieved immediately! Again, only the burping regime has helped but not so great to have to do when out in public.
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For the last 3 days I've had muscle spasm on my right side-it doesn't hurt. It's more like twitching. I have been burping-maybe gas. I have worked out a lot but haven't since this started. I was just wondering if anyone gets these. I did soak in Epsom salts tonight but the twitches still happening. I have read people do get these-it just makes you nervous as you feel a loss of control over your body.
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I have had a "spasm" in my stomach for nine days. It it located about an inch to the left of my belly button and up a little higher. It feels like a mild labor contraction, though I'm a 48 year old female and not pregnant. It can also be described as a strong "butterfly" feeling. I have tried an anti-spasmodic medication, a muscle relaxer, and anti-inflammatories, though NOTHING relieves it. It spasms about every 10 seconds and lasts for about 1-2 seconds. My doctor couldn't feel a spasm. I've tried massage, heat, castor oil---nothing is helping. Any suggestions as to what it could be or how I can stop it from spasming?
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I have suspected bilateral diaphragm paralysis and increasing difficulties breathing and swallow king. Weak and short breath on inspiration and expiration and barely sleeping. Are there any exercises can be done at this late stage as now have impending feeling of doom. Have been told intervention is pointless.
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