Fran E. Cook-Bolden, MD

I had CoolSculpting done on my upper and lower abdomen on 6/5/17 and 6/6/17. The procedure itself was extremely uncomfortable for me. The moment they activate the machine and your fat roll gets sucked into it was torture. It didn't begin to feel better until the area went numb from the cold. Peeling it off after was also very painful. After the first area, it almost brought tears to my eyes and I wondered how I would get through the remaining areas. The massage actually felt good to me, because it quelled the burning sensation I felt. I'm going to be COMPLETELY honest-- the soreness/tenderness did not go away completely for about three weeks. After the first session (total upper and lower right abdomen were treated), I went to kickboxing. I couldn't do everything but I wasn't totally incapacitated. My stomach was seriously swollen for the first week and extremely tender to the touch, so much so that if I accidentally bumped my belly into something, I would jump back reflexively. I am a stomach sleeper, so I didn't get nearly enough rest since I had to sleep on my side (and even that was uncomfortable). I was able to sleep normally again after about 10 days. By day 5 I started to feel what I guess was nerve pain-- a pulling sensation. The best way for me to describe it as that it felt like when you get a cut; it gets scabbed over and starts to itch as it heals. Then a part of the scab gets pulled off somehow before it's healed all the way-- it doesn't quite hurt, but to me it felt as if my cells were tearing away from each other. I would get that randomly and also I felt it when I jogged and my belly bounced. There was also a TON of itching. The weeks following the procedure really made me say out loud, "I would NEVER do this again." I'm only a month out but lots of people on RealSelf started seeing slight changes by this point. I don't see anything, and I'm quite disappointed. I really hope this wasn't a waste of my money, because it was NOT cheap.