I love this bulletin board...it's so very REFRESHING to feel supported by people with the exact same intrusive problem. It has so many residual effects in so many different aspects of my life...it's awesome that you all have created this. My family isn't very knowledgable of this problem, much less sympathetic to my personal experience with it. I'm very glad that this outlet exists.

I, too, was recently diagnosed with SD and given my first botox treatment. I am 28 years old and am an elementary teacher. Although I was out of the classroom for over 5 weeks at the beginning of the school year when my symptoms progressed very quickly, the botox treatment I received has allowed my to return to teaching and has truly been a blessing.

I experienced the same husky "godfather" voice that you were complaining of, but was absolutely amazed at how easy it was to talk for the first time in a long time. I actually preferred that voice to the strained, choked voice I had prior to treatment because it felt so effortless to talk.

I started to gain some volume back about a week and a half after my treatment. After a sentence or two, however, the good volume would fade back to the husky voice. It went on like this for another week and a half or so, getting a little stronger each day until I had good volume and a voice that I could project in the classroom about 3 and a half weeks after my treatment.

My botox treatment allowed me to return to my job and restored a lot of confidence which I had lost prior to treatment. The good voice was somewhat short lived, as I started to experience straining immediately when my volume started to return, but I am thankful for these few weeks that I've had with this "improved" voice.

Your volume should start to come back gradually, and then I'm sure you will find that you are happy with the results. For us beginners, it will take a while to get the dosage just right for optimum effectiveness. Hang in there!