Botox Thoughts?

[guy97]

I'm at a point at which I'm considering a Botox injection. My doctor is looking into who at Rush University Medical Center (highly reputable) does the best Botox shots, and I'm going to have my physical therapist relay to them the exact spot I need it done at.

Webslave, all, would you still recommend this when all pill treatments and four months seeing a physical therapist twice daily has failed? It seems like Atari and Critthinker have had at least temporary relief, and I have a good feeling that a few months of relief would let my system reset itself. The cost is of little object as fixing this is the single most important thing in my life right now.

[webslave]

If it works, it's a temporary fix only. And if by chance it makes the condition go into full remission, what if this comes back later in life, repeatedly? If there is a limited pot of money, go for the W-A protocol. If money is no object, try the Botox first, but be aware that one study found only a 30% response rate for BTX-A treatment (compared with 13% for placebo), while the most favorable study, which injected Botox into multiple sites, saw improvement that only lasted 10-12 weeks.

[guy97]

It seems largely appropriate for me since I have only a single trigger point (two separate therapists have been able to press my entire pelvic floor without pain except for one large anterior-levator-ani spot.) A lidocaine injection to that spot brought me to feeling 80% better for a couple of hours.

The hope would be that even a temporary fix might allow my neurons to reset. And if it does come back later in life... well, nothing lost, right?

My current physician is of a "central system" treatment mindset and was skeptical of Botox because it is a "local" treatment. But she did agree to look into it. I am also making general day-to-day relaxation changes to my life.

Thanks for the statistics, though. They are sobering. But there are individual accounts of this being a breakthrough, and I do have the money, and there's nothing I'd rather spend it on than fixing myself. Hell, I might even be able to talk my insurance into picking up part of it on the argument that they might not have to keep paying for my useless regimen of pills. They did cover my pelvic MRI 100%, which was unexpected.