Complete waste of money and the pain was worse than major surgery.

I had the Coolsculpting CoolMax (the biggest, most aggressive applicators) procedure on my abdomen on March 3 at Dermatology Inc. in Greenwood, IN. The aesthetician told me I would see results with only one treatment, and my C-section "spare tire" would see a big reduction. The results would be noticeable after three months, so I have waited to post a review. The verdict? Absolutely worthless. My procedure was $1800. I was warned there was a 5-10% chance of nerve pain, but some Neurontin would fix me right up. On day four, my "no down time" procedure turned into a week off of work dealing with the most excruciating pain. The only thing worse was a kidney stone. This was even worse than my C-section! The nerve pain lasted for 14 days total. I was swollen for about six weeks. Others have described this pain as a feeling of broken glass in the abdomen. That is about right. Nothing eases it completely, but ice packs helped take a bit of the edge off. The nerve block medication was useless. At the 11-week mark, I looked in the mirror and realized there was no change to my appearance. Probably not the best solution, but to get beach vacation ready, I went on a 1,000 calorie per day diet, exercised like a mad woman, and managed to lose about ten pounds in a very short time. When I went in for my Coolsculpting follow up, I declined to take pictures, because I felt like it would be dishonest for the clinic to have an "after" photo when diet/exercise alone were responsible for any change. The aesthetician, strangely, did not look at me at all though. I would have thought she would want to at least see if there were any negative effects. There were a few annoying parts of this appointment: she told me "everyone" gets results. She told me "the C-section scar placement prevented me from having results," even though she assured me that would see a great reduction--so the story changed from consultation to post-treatment appointment. Finally, she did not report my nerve pain to Zeltiq. I thought it was required that side effects be reported? I have since transferred my dermatology care to another practice, and the cosmetic dermatologist I now see says she will not offer Coolsculpting due to the side effects. This was a big wakeup call to learn to accept myself, lumps and all.