Tristan just received his 3rd round of botox treatments a couple of days ago. It’s interesting how quickly botox can affect his muscles, though the full effects take about 2 weeks, he’s able to move his arms vertically (which he has the most trouble with) with much more ease. Tristan receieved botox in his pectoralis, his forearms, and his biceps, and the muscles in the forearms that affect his hands. Tristan’s hands are extremely relaxed as are his arms overall and it’s nice because it allows us to stretch him much easier and allows him some extra range of motion.
The only side effect of the botox treatments (if you want to call it that) is Tristan usually gets a little feverish resembling flu like symptoms but these usually only last a couple of days, the effects of the botox treatments far out weigh this minor inconvenience.
Another observation is that Tristan seems less irritable after the first couple of days after his botox treatments than before his botox treatments. This is, in my opinion, due to the fact he has less tension in his arms and the released tension alleviates any associated pain.
It should also be noted that botox is only painful during the injection. The needle and the botox injection are the only pain that are suffered during this process. The only downside is that children usually get used to the procedure and know when the shots are coming so they fight, as any kid would. Tristan’s doctor, Dr. Barr, wants to do the botox treatments at the hospital seeing his age and strength, because they can use a short term anethesia and perform the botox treatments without a wiggly toddler to worry about. When the patient wakes up it would be as if they didn’t do anything at all. No upset toddler, and that’s a good thing for us! When Tristan is coherent and awake he’s very strong and it takes a lot longer to do the botox treatments because he’s moving around. Doing the botox treatments while Tristan is sedated will make it faster and safer. It takes 3 people to hold him down as it is and he’s only 2!