Beauty queen with a message

It's become a celebrated remedy for getting rid of unwanted wrinkles, but for Dawn Brinkley, Botox keeps her from unwanted pain.

Brinkley, who was recently crowned Mrs. Jacksonville 2009, will compete in the Mrs. North Carolina Pageant Saturday. It's an opportunity, she said, to tell people about her struggle with cervical dystonia.

And Botox, a form of botulinum toxin, is the only thing that helps.

 "If even one person is affected by my story, then (my) job is done," she said.

Five years ago, Brinkley was sitting in her car, waiting for a traffic light to change, when two cars collided head-on, causing a truck to spin around and hit Brinkley's car. Brinkley corrected her car in a quick motion, so quickly that her head hit the driver's side window.

Brinkley walked away from the accident, but soon began experiencing blinding migraines and painful muscle spasms. Worst of all, her doctors didn't know what was wrong.

"There were days when I thought I wouldn't make it," she said.

As she continued trying to find the source of her pain, Brinkley began to feel isolated. The pain so intense the mother of two even thought of suicide. At one point, she was told it was all in her head.

Finally, Brinkley met with a doctor in California who diagnosed her with cervical dystonia, which causes the neck muscles to spasm involuntarily, resulting in considerable pain and dysfunction, according to the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.

Brinkley was told that she would never be better. She decided to search the Internet for information about dystonia and learned that Botox could help.

During Brinkley's first treatment with Botox, she remembers "there were so many needles," she said. She had to be very still, and the doctor stretched out her neck muscle and stuck the needles in, she said.

"There have been times when they've bent the needles because the muscle spasms are so serious," Brinkley said.

Brinkley said the treatment is painful, but worth it. Botox "takes about 75 percent of the muscle pulling away. It's a cycle you're going to be stuck in, visiting very 10 to 12 weeks for more treatments," she said, "but I am able to still go about my life."

Botox helps Brinkley do what she loves, like spending time with her husband and sons, but she can no longer continue her career in construction, which she enjoyed, she said.

"I went through a really dark place," she said. "I liked my life. I liked being a mother and working full time. I kept asking, ‘Why do I have to give up work?'"

But she decided, instead, to look forward: "You have to say, ‘stop looking at yesterday' and say, ‘It just is, and that's OK.' Start on a new path.'"

Brinkley misses bowling and tennis - two favorite activities she can no longer do.

"I felt like a 66-year-old trapped in her 31-year-old body," she said.

Now, Brinkley calls her Nintendo Wii her "lifeline." She plays Wii Bowling and Rock Band for fun and volunteers at the Wounded Warriors Battalion at Camp LeJeune.

"I'm thrilled to be a part of their lives," she said.

Brinkley, who will travel to Lincolnton on Saturday to compete in the Mrs. North Carolina Pageant, is looking forward to representing Onslow County - "a great sense of community" that makes her "feel welcome."

"I'm excited to get up there and, more important than anything, to represent Jacksonville," Brinkley said.