Botox: Is This My Midlife Crisis?

Shawna Pitts is a guest blogger. She is a patient of Cynthia Abbott, MD at our Midtown location. This is the first in a three part series about her experience as a naive Botox patient. These blogs reflect her individual experience and/or opinion and are not intended to speak for the company as a whole or our individual physicians. Enjoy!
Having two children under the age of 5 really challenges the strength and vitality of your facial muscles. It’s like boot camp. I feel like my brows could actually HOLD THINGS. I bet I could hold a pencil with my eyebrows. Now, I have always been a facially-animated kind of a gal, but once my oldest hit toddlerhood at the ripe age of 18 months – my forehead just hasn’t been the same.
I remember the first time someone told me to ‘quit frowning’ when I wasn’t. How annoying is that? To be going about your merry way and have a complete stranger ask, “Are you okay?”. Thus began my obsession with the frown lines I never really paid much attention to until others began questioning my state of happiness.
I consider myself to be a pretty happy person. Often my face is saying: ‘I’m angry”, “I’m annoyed”, and “I’m not sure about this”, andd “REALLY?”…When in actuality old expressions have etched themselves onto my face and now past experiences are speaking in the present. You see, the problem is that my “I’m angry”, “I’m annoyed”, and “I hate the world!” – face, is also the same face that says, “I’m excited!”, “Life is awesome-sauce!”, and “I’m not so sure about this but LETS DO THIS THING!”. So all the feelings I feel – and oh how I feel them all – excite these android brow muscles of mine. The result is a pair of creases deepening at a astonishing rate. At this pace, they will ultimately be able to store a Tic Tac or two for desperate times when I’ve forgotten to pack snacks and little people are ganging up on me.
In 2006 my husband and I married and traveled extensively for 6 months. It was by this time that I was obsessed enough about these lines that I could not even appreciate a good photograph of myself lounging atop the Cliffs of Moher with absolutely nothing to do for the next 6 months but traipse around Europe with a really fine-looking man-spouse. My self-photo-hating had begun complete with photo captioning. Ladies and gentlemen – I present to you – Angry Brows Atop Irish Cliffs.

You see what I’m talking about? I mean its no wonder so many people are confused by me. So much emotion! Happy and angry all at once! Who knew? Only, I am totally not angry in this moment. The only possible negative thought that could be running through my head right there is, “It would be really awful if someone pushed me over this cliff”.
I knew I needed to do something about it, but by the time we got back from our travels I was rearing to start making babies. For the last 6 years I have either been trying to get pregnant, I have been pregnant, or I have been nursing. All the while, the lines on my face have been getting deeper. Well, I’m done with pregnancy and breastfeeding, and I am ready for facial paralysis y’all.