Botox isn't just for the wrinkly

Botox:  Botulinum toxin.

Wait, what????  TOXIN???


Ok right, I knew that, I think.  So why did I want doctors to shoot up my baby with toxin?  Oh yeah, his neck......It only took us, hmmmm, six months to make it happen.

The good news is, you can use botox treatment in babies with torticollis up into their toddler years.  I just didn't want to wait that long.  His head shape already suffered from poor physical therapy, I didn't want him to walk around with a perpetual head tilt for the rest of his life.  Check it out on google images and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Today was the day.  We drove up to Primary's and checked in.  Baby was a tad bit grumpy because he hadn't eaten anything since last night.  I did get him up this morning though to give him a bottle full of juice to make sure he had good veins.  Just my luck, they were doing a general, which meant happy baby gas instead of an IV.  After waiting for just a few minutes, they took us back, explained the procedure and asked if we were ready to leave our little boy with them.  They let him play with the gas mask so he wouldn't freak out, and then laid him down.  I have to say, watching this was worse than watching him get an IV!  He didn't even mind the needle, but had a very hard time with the nurses holding him down and the anesthesiologist smothering him with a mask.  But it didn't last long, his eyes rolled back and he was out like a light.  They asked me to help hold him down and keep him happy, but I couldn't stand too close.  He was struggling a lot and the gas was leaking out, and I was starting to get dizzy.  So when they asked us to give kisses before sending us out, Nick and I both were like, oh we're ok!  We'll see him after.

We went to cafeteria and got Nick some breakfast and me a milk while we waited.  They told us it would only be about a 20 minute procedure and that he would wake up pretty quick afterwards.  And it was very quick, as we were walking back to the waiting room, the receptionist grabbed us in the hall and took us back to the recovery room.  A few feet away from the door we heard him screaming.  Haha, apparently waking up  this time wasn't as pleasant.  A nice old nurse was rocking him in a chair and giving him a bottle of juice.  He reached for me as soon as he saw me, which I thought was adorable.  He was much more alert and grumpy this time, but still kind of silly.  After he finished his juice they let us go.  But man, if I though the gas was bad in the botox room, it was even worse coming out of Tristan.  He practically sedated Nick and me on the ride home breathing that stuff on us.  And for two hours after we got home, he still smelled just as strong.  A very sweet and pungent strawberry smell that makes you very dizzy.  No wonder he was still tipsy all over the place!  Poor kid.  But he was back to his normal self with in a half hour, rolling around, playing with toys and giggling and virtually everything.  I'm very proud, he's been such a trooper, and he did very well today.

Now we wait.  They told us it would take a few days for the effects to really show, and in the mean time not do anything too strenuous with him.  We're also going to take him to a new physical therapist up north to learn what to do now that his muscle has been relaxed.  Hopefully we will start to see good results with the treatment, that he will be able to start pulling himself up and sitting and crawling on his own.  I'm very excited, I really hope it works well for him.

Tristan loves the bubble towers

Daddy let's him look up close

Playing with toys and waiting for the doctor

This is a fun one we should get mommy!

Mommy, what are they going to do to me??

(you can see where the muscle sticks out

on the right side)

Waking up and chewing on the monkey

All nice and recovered

Botox injection points

Daddy jungle gym!

I could do this all day!