Life Changing Experience - No More Sweat After Level 4 Treatment - Boston, MA

It's been 2 weeks since my miraDry procedure and I'm still 98% sweat free. Every now and then, in a stressful situation, I feel like I'm sweating but when I check, my armpits are only a little moist. It's certainly not enough to get my shirt wet and before the procedure I would have soaked my shirt. I'm still a bit swollen and exercising is still just a bit uncomfortable because there's more friction in the armpit area due to the swelling. And like others have said, I still have hard bumps under the skin. But it's much better than it was last week and so I have no doubt it will go away over time. I've posted pictures at 1 week post procedure and 2 weeks post procedure.

I am an almost 40-year old woman. I have suffered from axillary hyperhidrosis since college. I have tried everything to treat the condition from stuffing maxipads in my shirts, to Botox injections (which stopped being effective after a while), to prescription creams that irritated my skin so badly that I couldn't sleep. I wore mostly black and dark colors to hide the sweat stains. I had to throw out shirts that were not that old because my constant sweating changed the color of the fabric in the armpit. Or my sweat made the fabric in the armpit super hard and uncomfortable. Or the odor in the armpit wouldn't come out in the wash. When I saw an article about miraDry in the newspaper, I knew I had to try it, especially since the patient reviews were so good.

I had the procedure roughly 96 hours ago. 1 hour before the procedure, I applied a lidocaine cream to my armpits and took 800 mg of ibuprofen (as directed). When I got to the office, I met briefly with the doctor (Dr. Chatson) who seemed genuinely happy to be able to help me. And then I continued on with the procedure with the physician's assistant (Kelly). We discussed the level that I wanted to use on the MiraDry machine. Kelly told me that the manufacturer didn't really recommend level 1 or 2 anymore as those levels were just not that effective. I decided to start with a level 4 knowing that I could always come back and do a level 5 treatment for the second procedure.

After applying the grid to each armpit, Kelly numbed the area with a bunch of shots. This was uncomfortable but only 1 or 2 of the shots made me say "Ow!" And they were way easier to handle than the Botox shots. After the first pass of shots, the area was numb and so when Kelly did the second pass, I didn't feel them at all. After that, Kelly used the miraDry machine to do the procedure. I felt nothing at all - there was absolutely no pain. Sometimes Kelly had to press down harder than other times in order to get the right suction on my skin, but this did not bother me at all. Once each armpit was done, I was given ice to apply to my skin. The whole procedure took about 90 minutes.

As for my recovery from the procedure, it hasn't been that bad. At no point did I suffer any pain. But the swelling starting the night of the procedure and the next day was a bit bothersome. I felt like I had tennis balls stuck under my arms and so I couldn't comfortably rest my arms at my side. My torso and upper arms swelled a bit and so I was walking around a little bit like a weight lifter on steroids. After the first 24 hours, the swelling started to subside, but even now, 96 hours later, I'm definitely still swollen in the arm pits. But I can see the swollen areas shrinking day by day. The swollen areas are also still numb but as the swelling goes down, it seems like the feeling in the skin is returning. As expected, my armpits are pretty lumpy. But I have a good feeling that over time, that will even out.

But the great news is that I am not sweating anymore! I mean, really, there is almost NO sweat. And this is after being in some situations at work that would have otherwise soaked me prior to the procedure. I would feel my armpits just after these situations expecting to be very wet and I was surprised to feel only a very slight amount of moisture. And while I was wearing loose shirts to help with my recovery, the amount of moisture that was there wouldn't have gotten even a tight shirt wet. I also haven't worn any antiperspirant/deodorant all week and I do not notice ANY odor. This has been a life-changing experience for me and I'm unbelievably excited with the results. I will most likely go back for a second treatment (included in the $3000 cost) after the summer is over (since I don't want to be all swollen in tank tops and T shirts) just to make sure we obliterated all of the sweat glands.

Thank you, thank you, thank you miraDry!!!!