Heavy Gabby Windey reveals scary neck Botox side effects.
A former finalist from “Dancing with the Stars” recently opened up about pursuing an unusual Botox treatment that caused some scary issues. Season 31 finalist Gabby Windey now has a podcast named “Long Winded.” In a recent episode, she opened up about the wild experience she had with getting Botox in her neck.
The experience came during her days performing as a Denver Broncos cheerleader, before appearing on “The Bachelor.” After getting Botox in her neck and returning to cheer practice, she realized it felt as if her head might “swivel off its axis at any time.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Gabby Windey Was Self-Conscious About Her Neck Wrinkles
During the June 6 episode of Windey’s “Long Winded” podcast, the “Dancing with the Stars” and “Bachelorette” alum revealed the story that left her struggling to swallow properly.
She explained, “When I was a Broncos cheerleader, our arms were always up with the pom poms.” Windey continued, “I noticed in all the pictures, whenever I’d raise my arms above my head, I would get a lot of wrinkles on my neck.”
The “Dancing with the Stars” veteran didn’t like the look, which she suggested made her look like a “bulldog, pug, Shar Pei, honestly, it was like big, thick wrinkles.”
Windey, who worked as a nurse before appearing on reality television, joked she knew “just enough to be dangerous” regarding medical procedures. So, she searched online about whether getting Botox in her neck would resolve the wrinkles that made her feel self-conscious.
She had to search a bit to find someone who would give her Botox in her neck. However, she was ultimately successful.
Three days after getting Botox injected in her neck, Windey returned to cheer practice. She quickly realized, “I’ve lost all my muscle contraction in the front of my neck…I felt like at any second my head could completely fall off its neck and twist around.”
The “Dancing with the Stars” alum admitted she’s “like a chicken,” though, so she kept dancing. She quipped, “I’m nailing the choreography headless, my head is in the corner, like, doing the hairography, bobbing along on the floor, but I thought that could be me at any second.”
Despite the Problems, the DWTS Has Pursued More Neck Botox
Nobody else at cheer practice noticed how much Windey was struggling. She freaked herself out, though. She decided to confide in her cheer bestie and had her feel Windey’s carotid artery every “15 to 30 minutes” “just to make sure I was alive.”
The “Dancing with the Stars” alum had convinced herself that the muscle issues in her neck would cause her carotid artery to stop pumping.
Luckily, Windey made it through that cheer practice, but her neck was “compromised” for two to three weeks. While she felt the neck Botox “worked” to resolve the bothersome wrinkling, she also “lost my capabilities to swallow correctly, fully.”
She likened her troubles to what stroke patients often experience with swallowing. She admitted, “I was stroke swallowing for weeks cuz I was aspirating on my food, I couldn’t take big gulps, I was like holy sh*t, is my swallow ever going to come back, am I going to get pneumonia?”
In addition, her voice “dropped like two to 10 octaves,” although she didn’t mind that side effect much.
Despite the unsettling initial experience of getting neck Botox, Windey admitted, “Have I gone back? You bet your a**.” She also noted, “I will say it worked.”