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MaxandRuby
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Toastie - Botox related
MaxandRuby
member
DS2 gets botox tomorrow. They are targeting 2 muscles in each leg and there will be 4 shots in each leg. Any advice for how to calm/distract a child during the actual injection process? I'm sure there will be little that will actually distract him, but thought I would ask. LOL
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Re: Toastie - Botox related
not gonna lie, it's going to svck. If it's in the back of the legs there will be minimal way to distract them. We lay DS on his belly and the nurse and doctor pin down his legs and stick him. He's had his hamstrings and hamstrings/gastroc's done.
Usually I just lean down and lay my head right by his ear and stroke his hair or sing to him until it's done. for me, it was more about me being prepared. i was expecting a vaccine, or even a shot of rocephrin. one, poke maybe a slow plunge and done. it was a lot longer than that. DS is pretty cognitively delayed so I've never been able to reason with him. but as long as you stay calm and talk him through it, it won't seem so bad.
good luck and let me know how it goes!
Hey Toastie - just wanted to give you an update. The appointment went well, was extremely fast actually. DS2 cried (I could hear it in the waiting room) but not for as long as I thought he would and he was totally fine sucking on a Dum Dum and playing Leap Pad when DH brought him back to the waiting room to me.
The neuro said next time he'll want to add in the hamstrings. Apparently they were tighter then we thought. Fabulous.
So glad. I always say that the first time was a LOT harder on me than him. By them time we go to leave the doctor's appt DS is always fine and just giving the nurses dirty looks, meanwhile I'm holding back the crocodile tears.
Hopefully your little guy has some good gains while it's active!
Hey guys--- can I ask what the botox is for? I'm curious. Is it for the gait?
My new "mom" blog: http://realityofamommy.blogspot.com
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Notes:
Hey guys--- can I ask what the botox is for? I'm curious. Is it for the gait?
My new "mom" blog: http://realityofamommy.blogspot.com
[img]
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
Notes:
The Botox for DS2 is to hopefully get a little more range of motion in the leg and foot area. Function-wise, we are hoping that it will allow him to stand flat footed and walk (assisted) with a normal gait (heel to toe). If he can stand flat footed, that will also give him a wider and more stable base. If he has that, we are hoping that he will gain the function of standing independently.
We'll see what happens!
My DS has severe hypertonia (he is extremely stiff and tight). This causes him not to have enough range of motion which has tightened his muscles. If we don't stretch him out enough it could eventually lead to shortening of the muscles which would make it impossible for him to straighten his legs, unlench his hands, bend his ankles, etc.
The Botox stops the neurons from being able to transmit from the nerve to the muscle tissue. So all those crazy neurons his brain is firing that are causing his muscles to be constantly tight are blocked. This allows us to stretch him without his brain fighting it. It actually paralyzes the muscle which is why it's really important where and how they inject it. It takes about 2 weeks to fully work at blocking the neurons, peaks at about 6 weeks and wears off by about 10-12 weeks.
Before his inital Botox injections, DS's hamstrings were SOOOO tight that sitting was impossible. It would hurt so bad in the back of his legs to have his legs out (long sit) that he would instantly throw himself backwards. A few people said this was issues with his tone and trying to balance but he would sit so well in our laps or on a bench where he could have his legs bent. So we tried one set of Botox to see if it helped and in 3 weeks he learned to sit and in 6 weeks he learned to crawl.