Questions about botox (please respond!)

[jay77]

I got botox injections about 6 months ago and it did not besides a very small part in my palm which is dry. However, after I got the injections my hands became extremely weak. My doctor warned me that my hands might get weak, but he made it seem like it was no big deal and said that it will not affect my daily life. My hands were so weak that I could not even grip a pencil (and I am in college so that made it a huge problem). Also, I could not do simple things like button pants or tie my shoes. The extreme weakness went away after about 2 weeks, but even now after it has been months I still feel like I have side effects. My handwriting has been extremely messy ever since I had the injections. Also, the botox did not work at all for my fingers or the sides of my hands.

Even though I had such a bad experience the first time, I am so desperate to stop my sweating that I might want to try it again. I have tried literally everything else (ionto, robinul, drysol, etc.). Is the reason that I had the weakness because my doctor injected it too deep? Also, has anyone tried myobloc? I heard that was much more effective than regular botox.

Thanks!

 

[Amherst]

There was a clinical study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison that was trying to address the very problem you describe. They were comparing botox injections with botox delivered by iontophoresis. You might contact them to see whether they have any results and whether the delivery through iontophoresis worked. Here's the link:

BTX-A Treatment for Palmar Hyperhidrosis - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov

Amherst

 

[Jezza]

Yeah I have had a similar experience with botox that you describe although the weakness was not as bad as you say in my case. I've had botox injections in my hands twice, the 1st time was a bit of a disaster...it was in hospital but they had never done the procedure before on hands and I was the first one they tried it on, it turned out to be a bit of torture really. They used EMLA cream to numb my hands...it didn't work. The injections were extremely painful and they did about 10 in both hands. A small area around the injections became dry but it wasn't nearly enough to make a real difference.

The second time I went to a private practise and the doc there suggested to numb the hands with ice cubes. Naturally I was a bit sceptical after the 1st experience. It worked great however in terms of reducing the pain to it becoming a minor issue. I got about 50 injections in both hands including about 3 injections in each finger.

This did reduce the sweating in my hands pretty well under most circumstances. However I thought it gave a somewhat weird feeling of numbness in my hands. For a couple of reasons (one being cost, one being that it wasn't a full solution as my general HH was unaffected, the numbness of my hands and the growing concern that botox might still have some (long-term) side effects and finally, the fact that ionto, though more bothersome, gave me similar and in some ways better results) I did not have renewed injections again after that.