30 Years Old, Wanted a Tiny Bit of Abdominal Fat Gone -- Starting to see results!

I'm 30, 5'4 and 110 pounds. I've always been fairly thin, especially arms and legs, but always had a little fat lingering in the lower abdominal area, even at my skinniest. I always envied my friends who could eat a burrito and still have a flat stomach. My stomach would stick out at anything, even with mostly clean eating. My perfectionist self drove me to try coolsculpting when I heard about it online.

Spoiler alert, one day later: I can't stop thinking, WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!

Let's back up.
I went for a consult yesterday, and on the spot she asked me if I wanted it. I'm going on vacation in a month, so I thought, perfect timing, I'll have a flat stomach by late May. I said yes. We proceeded.

The first sign that I would hate this should have been the suctioning of all the fat into the tube. When she first put the suction device on, I yelped. It scared my technician, and she pulled it off me. Little did I know...

She tried again, I steeled myself and we got it on this time without incident. Before the cold even starts, it's so uncomfortable because your belly button is being sucked into a machine. Then the cold started, and I was extremely uncomfortable, stressed, and shifting around watching the stupidest videos on YouTube trying to take my mind off it. Finally, after ten excruciating minutes, the area had numbed and I wasn't under high stress, but not exactly comfortable either.

35 minutes later, she comes back in, takes it off, and goes to wash her hands. The area stings like crazy, being exposed to the heat. Then she cleans it off and begins a horrific massage. Imagine getting a massive bruise, then someone coming by and roughly massaging it.

Then you pay a disgusting sum of money ($750 in my case) and are left to limp home.

The entire rest of the day I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I could not put any pressure on the area, not even light pressing with my fingers. Couldn't bend down to put on or take off shoes. Any time I had to get something off the floor I did a lunge instead. Could not straighten out my shoulders, so I was slumped all day. I lost my appetite and felt borderline nauseated. Did not have dinner. Definitely could not exercise.

Possibly the worst part was that the area was so swollen, there was now a bigger stomach "pooch" than I've ever had in my life. It was a slap in the face, like, you wanted a flat stomach, you perfectionist? Here, have the opposite, it's gonna look like you gained ten pounds in one area. It's shocking, since no one really *sees* themselves gain weight, but my stomach roll multiplied in size in the span of an hour.

This morning, I do feel slightly better! The area is still so tender that touching it hurts, but I feel like I can pull my shoulders back. The stomach roll is also not as big, but I'm unsure if that's because the swelling has gone down or because I hardly ate yesterday. Maybe that's how coolsculpting works ;) It nauseates you to the point of eating less.

I called the spa and they will be sending me my before photos so I can post for you all. I'll try to post here with follow up. Feel so good to get this off my chest, thank you real self community!

Day 3, and my main sentiment is that I'm thankful it's not worse!

It is still swollen but not nearly as bad as on day 1. Still, I have a little pooch. It's about the size of pooches I've had at my heaviest and most bloated, so not as shocking as day 1.

In terms of pain, yes there is some pain. For instance, I swung my shoulder bag around to the front and it accidentally hit my stomach and that HURT. However, it hurts less than yesterday. I can bend over slightly more, but not all the way. There are also occasional internal pains. The ones that make me cringe feel like they're from inside my belly button.

I tried working out a bit today but I still can't completely. Anything that requires bending is a no-go since pain will shoot through that area. Anything that requires jumping/bouncing is a no because that area gets shaken up.

This sucks, but like I said, I'm just happy it's less bad every day. So far, still regretting doing Coolsculpting.

It's getting better, one week later! No more cringe-inducing belly-button cramping, and the area is a lot less tender. For example, I can actually turn around in the shower and let the water hit my stomach. Before, that would be intensely painful.

However, the area is still a little bloated, definitely more than usual, but not horrible. What's funny is that I can't "suck it in". It's like I lost muscle control in that area.

I've also been working out, and it's mostly fine now. Occasionally core work will make the area feel weird, but I've pushed forward.

This is still the stupidest thing I've done to myself. Maybe I'll feel differently in a month if I get that flat stomach, but so far I still feel foolish for spending all this money and pain on Coolsculpting.