More Painful Downtime Than Expected - London, GB

30 y/o, no children, 5'7, 140 or so pounds, clothes size 10UK/US 6 (I don't weigh myself and usually just look at how my clothes fits).
I am definitely no stranger to cosmetic treatments. I have fillers and botox on a regular basis, had rhinoplasty in April 2014 and am a firm believer in "no pain no gain". I had vaser liposuction without anaesthesia in May 2013 on inner and outer thighs, flanks and back of the arms (it was cheaper for more areas) with the intention of coming back to do my stomach, but the whole experience was too painful for me to want to repeat it and I couldn't afford two weeks downtime with my current job. Since then I've been exercising regularly 3-5 times a week (heavy weights and cardio), eating healthy apart from episodes of bulimia that I've had since early 20s and that have been the reason I gained weight to start with. I've been steadily losing weight all year and I would even say the weight kept coming off the "liposuction'd" areas more eagerly than my arms (front) and stomach that started to bother me more by comparison with thinner legs. I came across an article about "Aqualyx" fat-dissolving injections, went to a clinic for a consultation and learned about Coolsculpting instead. It seems to be advertised as a "no-downtime non-invasive" easy-breezy treatment, almost like having a massage after work. I did read lots of reviews on here and saw that while some people were in pain, others weren't at all, so I proceeded thinking I will be one of the lucky ones (but I wasn't). I went to two clinics, in one of them the doctor said he could "coolsculpt" absolutely anything off me and encouraged me to buy as many areas as I could, which really put me off. A nurse in the other clinic seemed a bit more realistic and said I only had enough "grabbable fat" on my stomach and it wouldn't work on any other area. I preferred this approach and booked the procedure in two weeks' time.

Still remembering my awfully painful vaser lipo experience, I took painkillers and a tranquilizer pill just before Coolsculpting and slept through the procedure. Two small cups were used on my lower stomach and the first five minutes on each side were almost unbearably painful, I wanted to jump off the couch and run away but the nurse encouraged me to wait it out. At the end she said I had a really impressive block of frozen fat and could expect good results. I left the clinic feeling absolutely normal and for the next three days I wasn't in much discomfort, I did my usual treadmill interval running (wearing spanx just in case) but my stomach felt like a big bruise and looked really swollen, so I had to choose the most maternity-like clothes to wear, trousers were out of the question and compression garments helped somewhat. The pain started on day 4, first off as pins and needles, on day five I was in lots of pain (many describe it like being stabbed in the stomach every few seconds, plus the itchy-sunburn feeling) and started taking non-prescription painkillers which don't seem to make much difference, day six painkillers and ice pack, it's day seven now and I can't even leave the house, ice pack is on all the time but at least the swelling seems to have subsided. I will wait until my final result to say if it was worth it or not but I do think the "no downtime" claims made by clinics should be a little more realistic. At the moment I just wish the pain would go away, it's the fact that it's so constant that makes it really bad.

This is pretty close to how my stomach looked before the procedure, it tightens up after ice pack quite a bit.

My belly button is extremely itchy and the constant little stabs under the skin are still very bad and non-stop. When I press on the stomach it feels very painful, more painful than the bruise pain I had the first three days, more like internal organ pain. Letting cats near it is out of question!
I found some codeine left from my rhinoplasty and took it just to see if it works, but biggest relief still comes from icing, as soon as the ice pack is off the pain is back. I am extremely annoyed I have missed at least two of my usual gym days already, that can't be helping the fat loss!

As of yesterday, the pain has been gradually getting duller but I still need an ice pack to fall asleep.

I am probably still recovering as my stomach gets itchy from time to time but I am noticing a very small reduction: the sort of change if I did a detox for a week, but it's very subtle and not noticeable to anyone but me. I'm sure if I had a couple more sessions I could see great improvement, shame my recovery was so painful I will never do coolsculpting again.
Will take some pictures if the change becomes a little more noticeable

I definitely see results from the procedure - I'd say the 20% reduction claims were pretty accurate for me. This has also motivated me to up my abs exercise and not overeat. The stomach is by no means perfect but feels great and liberating to be wearing some of my more clingy clothes without worrying about the stomach so much. I am very gutted that my recovery was so painful, otherwise I'd already be booking one session on upper and one more on lower tummy, pretty sure that would make it close to perfect, with those visible abs outlines that I'd love to have. Maybe I'll risk it once the neurological pain is forgotten or if I can obtain those pain killers they don't prescribe in UK.
Unfortunately, for the recovery pain alone I can't say coolsculpting was worth it for me but as for the results, I am impressed the claims have actually matched the reality, unlike so many other procedures.

OK, I must admit, I have been very impressed with my results so far. At this point there is not much more than a fold of skin with a tiny bit of fat left where there used to be a considerable pouch all my life, when I bend over it's no longer a roll of fat but a small fold (unlike the two rolls above it). I must be a sucker for punishment because yesterday I had two small cups done on my upper stomach and booked two more for the small amount of back fat that I have to achieve more harmony in my upper body (I am naturally top-heavy, with skinny legs and a short boxy torso).
The procedure itself was not much different this time, I was very uncomfortable for the first 3 minutes, then a burning sensation for the next five and after that I was fine. I took my tranquilizer and had a nice relaxing nap. The frozen block of fat was once again pretty big and the nurse said I'll have good results again. Now my upper stomach is very painful, feels like an internal bruise (but no actual bruising), everything is familiar this time. I am not looking forward to neurological pain on days 5-10 but very much looking forward to my results. I will take some photos in a couple of weeks once the healing is done.

The recovery has been exactly the same for me this time round, on day 5 the neurological pain started and got much worse today, it's the sort of stabbing/nagging pain - it's sharp and dull at the same time, really hard to describe. I've been trying my best to man up but it's so intense at times I get cold sweat and almost pass out. Broke down and cried from pain at work, so had to tell the colleagues what I'd done (they all agreed I'm stupid and didn't need it). I do know why I did it though and look forward to day 13 when I can feel like myself again. Strangely, moving a lot and especially gym seem to help with the pain, as opposed to seating down, although nothing beats the ice pack.

It's been almost a month since upper stomach done and I think it still hasn't recovered as there is sensitivity when I press. Overall, procedure pain and recovery were even worse for upper stomach than the lower part (I'm glad I forget pain really quickly).
Had my back fat (small rolls) done three weeks ago and there was almost no pain and zero recovery pain, the biggest discomfort was from lying on my back for two hours. I wish it was like that for my stomach!
What concerns me slightly is that I developed an asymmetrical lump on my lower abs, I can feel it under skin and it feels hard, like fibrous tissue, this can be seen mostly in my side view and I can definitely see it looking down at myself. Not sure if it's a coolsculpting complication (I've read about it in other reviews but theirs looked worse) or has always been there and became more visible with fat reduction? It doesn't bother me too much but makes me wary about having another procedure in that area, although I would like to get rid of the funny-looking pooch and get my stomach perfectly flat, might look into spot liposuction now.
I'm uploading a couple of pictures I took this morning - obviously at its tightest but still looks better than before.

I've had a pretty drastic drop in fat on the upper stomach area what seemed like overnight. Last week I spent on holiday, overindulging in simple carbs, and when I came back I noticed most of the upper abs fat was gone! It's a weird and wonderful feeling to be able to poke my abs muscle through the thinnest layer of fat, I don't think I have ever been able to do that in my entire life.
Still not delighted about the lump of fat sticking out on the lower abs, I think it looks a bit funny but it doesn't make me self-conscious and I might be able to diet it away and I have motivation to do extra crunches.

OK, so it's been a while and I must say, the results from coolsculpting didn't last as long as I'd hoped even though I have actually lost a bit more weight. I think most of the tightness in my stomach post-procedure came from damaged tissue and once it's healed it's become softer and the results are not as dramatic (though the weird lump I had disappeared too). It's still good results just not £700 per cup good. Just because I loved having tight stomach with definition and for my body type it requires extremely clean eating with no slip-ups, I would consider coolsculpting again but only if I got a very good discount.