The Wonders of Medication

It is amazing how well controlled Dystonia can be when you have the right combination of medications in you – for me Botox is the best thing, followed by a lot of Gabapentin! A year ago, I would have had a hideous amount of seizures due to jaw pain and would have struggled to eat, drink and talk. Now with regular Botox and other medications I am constantly my normal motor mouth self.

Everyone with Dystonia reacts to medications differently,for example I know many people find Clonazepam helpful but it causes me to become psychotic. Yet there is no one medication for Dystonia which makes treating it and getting it under control extremely hard. I am very lucky to see an excellent neurologist who is willing to inject me with Botox every six weeks, if he stuck to the usual every 12 weeks I would not be able to do half the things I now can.

On Monday I saw my GP to discuss IV treatment for Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease. I have been on oral antibiotics for around 8 months now and have had significant improvement in the areas affected by Lyme. After months of both myself and my neurologist asking him to set up IV treatment he has finally agreed to write to a couple of the local hospitals and see if they will treat me! This is fantastic progress.

My little Dystonia alien is all full of Botox and docile at the moment. I have been off my main painkillers for a few weeks and I have not had any bad pain episodes yet *touch wood*. I have also managed to come off one of my muscle relaxants, this is great as everything seems clearer and I feel like my memory has improved. As much as I do not like pickling my liver with all my medications I’d be lost without them. I am hoping that this stage of feeling like my Dystonia is ‘contained’ and ‘controlled’ continues, but nothing is ever certain in life especially with Dystonia, so I am focusing on enjoying every little thing each day.