My First MiraDry Experience - Sydney, Australia.

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to give an update on how everything is going. I had my second and final MiraDry treatment today at the same place (ManCave Sydney) and everything went according to plan. Although I was quite happy with my first treatment and the results I received, I decided that I would like to maximise the results as much as possible. Sara and her team were great as usual and am very happy with everything.

I will update again in a month or so.

Thanks,

Peter

Hi Everyone,

So it's been exactly a week from when I had the procedure and everything is going well. I have noticed a couple of drops of sweat here and there (only when I am doing some form of exercise or a lot of walking around for a long period of time) but nothing that is bothering me, which I am very happy about! I don't know if the sweating is from the saline escaping that area where it was injected or just sweat - either way, it doesn't matter. Of note, even when I have sweated those one or two drops, I stop sweating shortly after and it dries up. In the past I would sweat and continue to sweat to the point where my t-shirts would be constantly wet the whole entire time - this doesn't happen anymore!

The swelling has decreased dramatically and there are still a couple of swollen areas but they should be gone in 2-3 days I think. The middle part of my armpit still a bit numb but I believe its from the swelling that is slowly going away in that area and the doctor said that its normal to experience that for the first 2 weeks or more (so I am not worried). As for the odour, I haven't had any odour at all and I haven't worn antiperspirant the entire week!

So far, I am very pleased with the results and can't wait to see the full effect in 2-3 months to get a clear indication on how the treatment has worked. I suspect I'll have a second treatment just to make sure I maximize the results but I'll see how I go. I'll update again around the 1 month mark.

Peter

Hello fellow RealSelfers,

Note: This review is going to be pretty lengthy and detailed documentation of my experience doing my first treatment. Read if you have time and/or are curious about the procedure.

To begin, I uploaded images of my sweat patches to show you my sweating problem before the MiraDry treatment. I took two sets of photos on two different days. They were both taken at night, in my room and it was quite cold both nights as well considering we are currently in winter in Australia at the moment. I didn’t do any strenuous activities; this was just me sitting at my computer desk on my computer. I am a 23 year old male.

I attended my first MiraDry appointment with Dr Kotai and her staff yesterday at 2pm on the 23rd August 2016. I arrived into the clinic located in the heart of the Sydney city area. The place was very close to public transport and was a breeze for someone like me who normally just drives to places and doesn’t use public transport. Anyway, I sat down, filled out a form with my details and then I went into their consultation room to be consulted on about the procedure. Her staff member Ginny was very kind, knowledgeable and informative on the information she provided to me regarding the MiraDry procedure and what to expect etc. I knew majority of what she was speaking about prior to the consultation as I had thoroughly researched the treatment online as well as also reading other people’s experiences with MiraDry on this website. I was quite realistic with my expectations in relation to this treatment; understanding that there wouldn’t be a 100% complete cure for my hyperhidrosis but that there would be quite a high percentage of permanent sweat reduction (once I have completed a second treatment) to around 83% or more dependent on the patient as every patient is different of course. An 83% or more permanent sweat reduction is heaven for people like us who have suffered from hyperhidrosis for years and years who had to change their clothing, be conscious of sweat patches, feel moist under the arms and in general not be able to wear colours or clothes which would stain them with sweat (I know how you feel, don’t worry!).

I was then introduced to Dr Kotai herself who would be injecting me with the local anesthesia into my underarms. She too was very kind, knowledgeable and personable which is a major thing for me as I really hate it when doctors are bland, blunt and don’t want to talk much to get to know their patient beforehand (she was quite the opposite, thankfully).

She further explained to me the procedure and actually told me that she did the MiraDry treatment herself; that was really self-assuring. Her results were quite good too she told me. We then proceeded to do a starch iodine test which measures where you sweat most under your underarms and shows up as a dark purple/black colour (See images as a reference).

After the test we then proceeded into the room where I would be doing the MiraDry treatment. It was pretty cool how she had a TV screen and Netflix to watch shows or movies as the treatment happened. She began by injecting me with local anesthetic in both my armpits (refer to pictures). The pain from this was fine as I generally have a strong pain tolerance, but there were a couple of instances where it did feel a sharp prick (but I wasn’t bothered or uncomfortable at all, so I wasn’t fussed). She also injected saline into my underarms as a sort of skin barrier for the treatment and extra protection for my first top layer of skin under the arms.

After the first underarm was numb I began with the MiraDry treatment. It was set on the 5 setting, which is the highest. For majority of my right underarm getting treatment I couldn’t feel anything however there were a couple of instances where I felt the MiraDry machine (I can probably compare the pain to accidently touching a sunburn when its raw). It wasn’t a big deal and the Dr injected me some more with the anesthetic and it was good afterwards. Sometimes people with thick skin need more local anesthetic and saline into their armpits (like me).

You can see some pictures and a quick video of the treatment happening from the anesthetic injections, to the MiraDry treatment in action etc. It took about half an hour each armpit and was pretty simple. Try to dedicate about 2-3 hrs for everything to be completed if you are also doing the starch test as well. Everything went pretty smoothly, I enjoyed the service and help etc.

It was then night time around 7pm and the local anesthesia has worn off (it wore off so fast once the initial wearing started to occur, within 20 mins of me feeling the first signs of the anesthetic wearing off the pain started to come).

Now I have to note that every single person is different and might not experience what I had regarding pain. To be blunt, I did have pain. I would say it was moderate to severe but only because the pain relief tablets that I thought would have worked for me (as they have worked well in the past for me for other stuff) actually didn’t work and take effect. I have no idea why they didn’t take effect and I advised the doctor by mobile (as she is kind enough to give her patients her mobile contact number if there are any implications etc which is rare but it can happen). She said that because I had extra saline put into my skin than the normal person that that puts more pressure under the skin and against the nerves under the arms and is what causes pain. I ended up taking 4 Panadeine Extras which normally you have to take 2 every 4 hrs but I had to take more in this case. Anyway, long story short, these didn’t work and so I mostly relied on cold packs! They relieved my pain entirely and numbed the area too, which was really good. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what I would have done because I was in quite some pain (again, every is different, you may not have much pain but if your pain killers don’t work like they didn’t for me, you will have pain so make sure to take them and have good ones!). Cold packs are your best friends as they reduce the swelling which I had a lot of (See pictures) as well as good pain managing tablets.

So today I took some more pictures and I am also taking antibiotics to make sure of not infection that happens (which is safe and mostly standard to take for any procedure non-invasive/invasive). I also need to take Savlon which is an antiseptic cream you can put under the arms to give more support to the antibiotics because armpits are places where bacteria loves to hang out. I will also let you guys know that I don’t have any pain today whatsoever and that’s with me taking no pain relief (which I am so relieved about!). I have the typical golf ball sized lumps under my arms and a bit of bruising but that is totally normal and will go eventually. I have no side effects other than the bruising and swelling.

I was advised that within the first two weeks I would have no sweating whatsoever because the body is in the healing phase and that’s just what happens she said. After the two weeks I might start to get a bit of sweating back but it should be a significant difference and decrease in the amount of sweating than before which is exciting to know! I will probably do the 2nd treatment regardless on waiting on the results for this first treatment, as I want to maximize the results as much as possible but I have to wait a minimum of 3 months. Additionally, I sometimes get what some people call phantom sweating where it feels like you are sweating but you actually aren’t and it feels weird but awesome to know that I am not sweating, but the first two weeks you usually don’t sweat at all and then after that any leftover sweat glans that weren’t destroyed in the first treatment reactivate again (that’s why I will eventually do a second treatment).

Thanks for sticking by and reading my full review, I hope you have become more informed about the procedure to some degree. To answer the most sought after question on whether I have any sweating back or not, it’s too early to tell. I’m going to wait until another month from now to see how it is going and then update it here. If you have any questions, you can ask me. All the best for your treatment!

Peter