Comic Strips

I have been using it for over 10 years for headache/migraine, so I get a way way higher dose than cosmetic, much more frequently, over far more injection sites (60-80 depending how my neurologist is feeling and what shifted complaints I have). So like take that for what it’s worth. The actual effect of it is pretty much the same, just paralyzed muscles in more places, and dosed more frequently.

It turns out after a long enough time (which, fun fact, super long-term use hasn’t really been well studied! Yay!), you actually do get some facial expressions back, but they are super muted. Mostly your face starts to employ other muscles that aren’t paralyzed. If you also get injections elsewhere for many years, like I do (neck and shoulders), the recruitment of other muscles can lead to some nasty rebound pain as the unparalyzed muscles desperately try, and fail, to make up for the loss, and knot the fuck out of themselves in the process. I’m dealing with this one now, going on 6 mths.

But for the most part, yes, you do lose a solid range of emotional expression, depending where you get the injections. Say goodbye to anger, surprise, confusion, and unfortunately compassion, among many other brow-heavy expressions (I decline injections in the constricting muscle between my eyebrows so I retain passable expressions of compassion confusion and anger, but surprise is gone entirely). For the first few weeks after getting it done, starting at about day 3 post-injection (every single time for at least a decade, I promise), you’ll feel how paralyzed your muscles are. It’s a weird feeling. You try to make a face and can’t, but you can feel the struggle. If you ever adjust to it, you still feel the first week or so, but significantly less.

I’ve declined to have any purely cosmetic injections, despite my neurologist making regular comments over the years about my lop-sided smile lines and crows feet (I use my face in asymmetrical ways; I like the wrinkles. It’s character.), so I don’t have the smile problem, tho I do get TMJ injections which make chewing tough stuff really difficult. I get enough of the shit injected already that I don’t really want more just to be “pretty”, but even with the current regimen, I get to look eternally youthful as I fall apart from the inside. Yay..