My leg went “nope” after Botox and now I own a hospital bed

A routine Botox visit turned into a medical detour when my knee locked and the first diagnosis didn’t fit. What looked like a psoas issue revealed itself as a full-on contracture, and that single word changed everything—treatment, expectations, and the pace of healing. I walk through the exact timeline, what we think happened during the injection, and how a rare nerve hit can spiral into days of pain and weeks of rehab, even when the clinician is skilled and careful.

From there, we get practical. I break down how Botox actually helps spasticity in cerebral palsy, why tone management and physical therapy need to work together, and what a realistic plan for reversing a contracture looks like in the real world. Think gentle, sustained stretches, precise injection strategy, smart positioning, and progress measured in small, steady gains. I share what’s working—meds, heat, patient handling—and what isn’t, including the rehab missteps I’m not ready to detail publicly yet, but that taught me to ask better questions and push for the right label before the wrong protocol sets me back.

Life does not hit pause while bodies heal. I talk about making room for school starting October 23, the never-ending medical paperwork, and a bit of fun I’ve planned next month to remind myself that joy belongs in recovery too. If you’ve lived through misdiagnosis, spasticity, or rehab fatigue, you’ll find both the specifics and the mindset shifts here: get the name right, match the plan to the name, and give it time to work. Listen, then share your own recovery wins, hard lessons, or questions—we learn faster together.

If this resonated, follow the show, leave a quick review, and send the episode to someone who needs a little clarity and a lot of patience today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Tech Woes, Show Welcome
• 0:44 Why My Leg Locked Up
• 2:05 Misdiagnosis vs Contracture
• 3:28 Botox as Medical Treatment
• 5:45 Rehab Struggles and Daily Impact
• 7:25 School Plans and Teasers
• 9:36 Closing Banter and Next Episode Hints

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

I don't know. I don't know what happened.

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

I don't know what happened to you guys. Technology. But here we are. Technology, Linda. And Danielle's shaking on like I don't know. Oof. Technology. But here we are. Welcome to Winning Not, you guys. Yes, it's been a crazy day. I've been on too many podcasts today to count. And one more to go at 6 p.m. And yeah. One more to go at 6 p.m. But anyway, yeah, when I come out, I'll share my social media. Anyway, but that's not the point of today's podcast. The point of today's podcast is I am going to explain in detail what's going on and what happened with my leg. So I'm going to get medical, but you guys will understand why I get medical when I get medical. I get Botox every three to six months. Every three to six months, I get Botox. Now, the day before this incident happened on July 17th, I um got Botox. Well, unfortunately, we think my doctor, who's really good at Botox, hit a nerve that she wasn't supposed to hit. And so on July 17th, my knee would not go down. All of a sudden, it traps on itself. And I, of course, had to go to the hospital to tell them my hip is out, my hip is out, my hip is out. They didn't see anything as far as my hip. And so they placed it as a psoas impingment. I remember telling you guys all this, they placed it as a psoas impingment. So far, um, it's now slowly opening up and coming down, but it's taking five and a day. What we've now done is called a contracture, not a psoas impingement. I don't even think I have a psoas impencement. I know I have a contracture. And so basically, what it is now is I'm working with one good leg and one gimpy leg. I want to call it gimpy, and that's what I'll call it. One good leg and one gimpy leg. So basically, what we believe happened, and now I'm not accusing doctors of doing this because doctors are humans. And so what we believe happened is my Botox doctor hit an earth. Now, believe it or not, I'm going back to Botox on Thursday, this Thursday coming up, and we're gonna see because they say Botox and physical therapy will help this contracture and will help open the leg up, which both for those of you that don't know what Botox is, Botox actually fixes the muscles to relax the muscles to make the area you're trying to help loosen up. So that's what Botox is. I know people use it for cosmetic reasons, but they use it a lot for cerebral palsy and they use it a lot for migraines. They use Botox medically for different stuff. So they um use Botox for cerebral palsy to release the muscles to get them to relax. Because with spastic ataxia, cerebral palsy, which is what I have, my muscles get so dang tight, it's not even funny. And it's like really, it's like dealing with a rubber band when you think about it. So Botox helps. If you ever seen a rubber band, imagine that in the body, imagine that in a leg. So Botox would help, and I'm on a bunch of medications for this um contraction, and it's really annoying. It's really annoying. I want my life back, and I have a hospital bed because of this contracture. So I am working with physical therapy about to go to outpatient physical therapy. That's gonna be a heck of a lot of fun. Not I am being sarcastic when I say that because that's gonna be a heck of a lot of fun, not and um rehab, rehabbing this was an absolute mess. Rehab was an absolute mess. Won't talk about that until I'm ready to talk about that. But that's essentially what's going on with my leg, and we just hope and play it opens up soon. It is, but it needs to open up a lot more, and so that's what's going on with my leg. Now we now we've called it a contracture, and that's what it is, and that's how it's stated, and we don't know about the SOAS impingement, whether that's healed or not. We're just working with the leg as a contractor. So that's what's truly up with my leg, and I'll keep you guys updated. I'll also keep you guys updated on school, and school starts for me October 23rd. I because I've talked to school and I need one thing signed by my doctor, lovely, always. And then I have something really exciting happening next month, I've decided. Um, so yeah, I'll tell you what it is, and you may see pictures floating around on Facebook and floating around on Instagram of said thing. But yeah, I'll tell you what it is and how I acquired it and how much fun I'm having with it. A little bit of time for fun, and so uh yeah, I will explain what's happening in the next months on next week's episode. So I'm gonna let the cute Bonnie Danielle lead us out, and I'm gonna let Danielle lead us out and let you guys go. Thank you for following us with the cute Bonnie said with the cutest nails too. Her nails are really cute that you guys is you can see they can't see, but I can. Red and the yellow. I don't know who inspired that, but they're really cute.

SPEAKER_00: 9:09

So how cool.

SPEAKER_02: 9:34

So she did it for the mad at the party, you guys. How cool. And Danielle, you might have to explain in the next episode your work. And so you might have to explain your work. Yes, Danielle works, yes, Danielle does amazing things, and yes, Danielle works, but we're going to explain that in the next episode, and we're also, I'm also going to explain what I'm doing next month in the next episode. So we'll get to you guys later. Bye you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 10:13

Bye.