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About a year ago, I was paging through a copy of People when I came across an interview with Michelle Obama. While I wouldn’t normally recall the details of a year-old magazine interview, something she said about BOTOX® stuck with me: “Women should have the freedom to do whatever they need to do to feel good about themselves. Right now, I don’t imagine that I would go that route, but I’ve also learned to never say never.”
The quote stood out to me because I was reading it in the waiting room of my plastic surgeon’s office. Unlike Michelle, I had a proven track record of saying “never” to BOTOX and other types of clinical treatments. I don’t like needles, and I preferred not to visit the doctor unless it was absolutely necessary. But seeing a friend’s results gave me the push I needed to schedule a consultation. The rest, as they say, is history.
About 2 months prior to that doctor’s appointment, I ran into my friend Jamie at a holiday party. I hadn’t seen her in a while, and something about her was noticeably different. She seemed so refreshed and vibrant — she even carried herself differently, with more confidence than before. Although she initially wrote off her glow as the lingering results of a recent vacation, she opened up as the night wore on. Eventually she leaned close to me and said, “I finally got BOTOX!” I was floored. Could a few injections really do that much? I wanted to find out for myself.
I spent a couple of weeks researching my options. Based on what I’d read, I knew I wanted to go with a board-certified plastic surgeon. Even if they weren’t the ones doing the injecting themselves, I knew that I could trust the professional injectors they hired, trained, and supervised. Although my gynecologist had been offering BOTOX for months, I really wanted to go to someone who had more substantial knowledge of the face and aesthetic medicine in general.
I also learned a lot about BOTOX itself during this research period. For instance, it’s actually a toxin that physicians have been using for decades to treat a lot of different conditions, from migraines to excessive sweating. Its nerve-blocking properties are especially effective at treating “dynamic wrinkles” around the eyes, which are caused by years of frowning, furrowing, and smiling. According to the BOTOX page of Hamilton, Ontario, plastic surgeon Dr. Otto Weiglein, the product is best for crow’s feet, frown lines between the brows, and forehead lines.
Learning all this information helped put me at ease, so after reading some patient reviews of a plastic surgeon in my area, I booked my consultation.
My visit with the surgeon was better than I anticipated. We spent some time discussing my medical history, and he asked me a few questions about the type of results I wanted. Finally, he did a physical examination of my face. He walked me through my options, and eventually we decided on BOTOX for my crow’s feet (a side effect of going without sunglasses for years) and JUVÉDERM®, a filler, for the deeper lines running between my nose and mouth. Because the procedure takes only a few minutes, we decided to go forth with it in the same appointment. I was a little nervous, but flipping through the surgeon’s album of before-and-after photos reassured me while I waited for his nurse to prepare the syringes.
My doctor swiped a cleansing towelette over my face to remove my makeup and any residual dirt. He started with my crow’s feet. He told me to smile to help him visualize where the wrinkles usually formed. He made a few small injections and moved on to the next eye. I couldn’t believe how quickly everything was happening, or how expertly my doctor conducted himself. I got the sense that he helped patients like me all the time. Each injection was a small pinch and hurt about as badly as my annual flu shot. The JUVÉDERM injections were similar. Within 10 minutes, the doctor was finished and I was holding a cold compress against my face.
Although I could see the results from the JUVÉDERM that same day, it took a few days before the ones from BOTOX started developing. My face felt a bit sore after my appointment, but I felt good enough to run some errands before heading home.
As I watched my results develop, I started to understand why Jamie looked so different at the Christmas party. Sure, her wrinkles were less noticeable, and she’d always been an attractive woman anyway. But, like her, it was the confidence that came from my results that really changed me. It’s been 2 months and that effect still hasn’t worn off. When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I see a polished, refreshed version of myself — it’s like wearing my favorite outfit every day. I’m so glad I decided to take the chance and treat myself. It won’t be my last visit to the plastic surgeon’s office.
About the author: Emmy Owens is a health & beauty blogger who loves everything related to looking your best! She is a mother and wife who loves staying fit by chasing her little kids. As she has become older she is not opposed to a cosmetic enhancement here or there, but the specifics remain in the vault.
I hope you enjoyed this article. I found it quite fitting as my views on non invasive cosmetic procedures has been evolving recently. I was shocked to discover that two of my friends have actually had Botox and find myself considering the idea of fillers at this point in my life. Who knew? It’s true. One should never say never!
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