52 Year Old, 163 Lbs. Coolsculpting - Belleville, IL

I got CoolSculpting 1 week ago from today. My upper body from the hips up needs a lot of work. I went in to get a consult and ended up getting a treatment that day. The technician said I needed 2 treatments (one now and another in 4 to 6 weeks after) on both areas. She used a large applicator on my lower and upper abs. She also said I would benefit getting it done later under my bra line. My plan was to get 2 treatments on stomach, 1 on flanks, bra line, and maybe under arms. After reading what everyone is going through, I'm very worried about going back. I thought I would post my thoughts and what my experience is.

The treatment itself was very weird at first but really wasn’t bad. The massage after wasn’t that bad either, kind of uncomfortable but not bad. The next morning I woke up to a swollen stomach and it was so numb. I had to go to work so I found a pair of dress pants that was a size larger than I wore, and prayed I would make it through the day wearing them. We are not allowed any leggings or yoga pants. After work, I went and bought me a pair of spanks and have been wearing them while I’m at work. On day 4, I started feeling a little of a prickly feeling in the treatment area, kind of feels like needles. I was still swollen and not seeing much improvement, and my lower ab feels hard. I read on some reviews that this could be called Paradoxical Hyperplasia (never heard of it, but I’m going to research it). Day 7 - I have noticed a little of the swelling is starting to go down, but I am still swollen and my lower ab is hard. Still wearing a size bigger in my pants. I have been massaging the lower ab as much as I could tolerate and using ice packs. Tonight I decided to buck up through the pain and really massage the hard area. This seems to have helped some with the hardness. I just pray that this is normal swelling and it’s gone by the end of week 2. I only have the before pictures today as I tried to take a selfie of the abdominal area and it turned out horrible. I will keep you all posted. Please let me know if any of you have experienced the same with swelling and how long did it take to go down. As for the pain, bottom line is, everyone experiences and processes pain differently, so please think about your pain threshold and not what others are experiencing.

So I'm a little shy of 3 weeks from having my lower and middle abs done, and I think it is working. I was so swollen at first, but after the 9th or 10th day everything started feeling much better. now its all good and I can feel it working. I'm going in on Monday which will be my 3 week mark to get my flanks, upper ab and hopefully my chin. I'm going to purchase 10 treatments for 5,000. I'm hoping to have everything done by end of March and full results by June. I'm back to doing 2.5 miles a day and started adding some weight lifting in my routine. I really hope to lose 15 lbs through diet and exercise. I can tell you that my downfall is not food, it is Beer. I love to have a beer in the evening. I have cut this way back and limiting myself to a few on the weekend only.