By: Dr. Craig Crippen

Recalling My Introduction – Too Botox

It was nearly a decade ago. But I’ll never forget the look on my Aunt Candy’s face the day I asked her “Why are you so upset?” Interestingly enough, my mom’s older sister hadn’t been upset at all…until I asked her that question. “I knew it!” she screamed, “That’s it, I gotta do something about this!”. Unbeknownst to me, Aunt Candy had been struggling with what she insisted were hideous frown lines for months.

Here’s the thing. My Aunt Candy’s name is actually Lillian. But everyone has been calling her “Candy” since she was a little girl because she was always known to be so “sweet”. A corny nickname, maybe. But there’s a reason she’s my favourite aunt. Having never paid me a visit empty handed, Aunt Candy was known for her jovial personality and generosity.

But the day, I asked her why she was upset – when she wasn’t at the time – proved to mark a changing point in her life. The next thing I knew, my mom and her sister were having a discussion about “getting old” and what to do about their wrinkles. No encouraging exclamations of “you look fine” or “you can barely notice them” were going to ease her frustrations on this day.

Not long after, I would be introduced to BOTOX. I giggled at the word, thinking of how much it reminded me of “buttocks”. But to my Aunt Candy, it was no laughing matter. She had done her research, so it seemed, and deemed BOTOX Cosmetic treatment as a worthy opponent for the deep frown lines that were apparent on her forehead.

It wasn’t about vanity at all for my aunt. She has always been so good natured that I think the mere idea of just looking upset even when she was in a good mood really bothered her. Similarly, the thought of getting BOTOX Cosmetic treatment really bothered my mother. “Are you sure it’s safe?” she’d ask at least twice every time she spoke to her sister.

Aunt Candy appeared pretty confident that the injection of the medicine between her eyebrows would be fairly painless. But I thought her confidence had more to do with relaxing my mother than it did her own beliefs about the treatment. She couldn’t have been more right though. “I didn’t feel a thing” were the first words out of her mouth when we saw her after the short procedure.

Fifteen minutes was all it took for my aunt to feel like a new woman, even if she didn’t look it yet. “Give it time”, she confidently assured us. A couple of days is all the time it took, in fact. Noticeably her frown lines were much smoother and a lot less apparent. I made sure never to ask her what was wrong again…unless I knew she was actually having a bad day.

The BOTOX Cosmetic treatment that she received did a lot more than just smooth out her forehead skin. It returned my aunt back to the happy-go-lucky lady that we all knew her to be. It even helped me to grow up a little. Having learned just how quick and painless a BOTOX injection is, I never again laughed at the name of this treatment. Even if it does remind me of someone’s rear end!

For more information, see: “Brotox” – Botox for the Modern Canadian Man