Just Had It Today - Seattle, WA

So basically after my first procedure at a level 2 I saw barely any decrease in my sweating, 3 months later I had a second procedure during at a level 3 and saw a bigger decrease in sweating but saw in increase in sweating around the perimeter of my armpits and was still not satisfied with my total sweating decreased amount yet, so about 6 months after that I had a third procedure done at level 4 (even though I really wanted a level 5 done, but even to get it upped to a level 4 was a struggle to convince the dr/rn) and that was finally when a i saw a significant decrease in sweating (what i was expecting from my first procedure) however over time, it is now like 8 monthw later, the sweating has slowly been coming back... if i shower and then nap afterwards i'll wake up to sweaty pits still, i struggle to sleep sometimes because of the uncomfortable sweating pit feeling and the anxiety that comes with it, even with little activity during the day i still feel the need to reapply antipersperant.... but it is definitely nowhere near the level it was at prior to procedure 1 but i was slowly seeing my sweating coming back and becoming an issue once again and so i went in for a forth treatment (which i was told was almost unheard of) i had a sweat test done and it showed that sweating was still occuring in both armpits and so since I had no bad side effects I was finally upped to a level 5 and was given a bigger template so the procedure was done on a larger area... and that was yesterday. I am currently healing and excited to finally see the difference once i can stop icing the area.

Day 1 (the day of the procedure) was tolerable painwise likely because of the lidocaine still numbing me, but I did feel like I should just lay in bed all day and rest. When I woke up on day 2 I was in a bit of pain and it was likely because of the painkillers wearing off at night and some of the lidocaine continued to wear off, however once I had taken them again I was fine by the afternoon, and although I was told not to do any intense activity I felt fine enough to pack my apartment as I am moving out. There wasn't much swelling on day 1, but day 2 the swelling was very noticeable and not on day 3 it is going down again. I don't really feel the need to ice my armpits anymore and painkillers aren't really needed anymore. Beside occasional tenderness/soreness I believe that I am fine now to go on to my normal life. Parts of my armpit/just above and just below the armpits are still slightly numb so it is hard to tell what my sweat level is looking like. When I touch them they feel slightly damp, no where near what they used to be though, and I'm not sure if they are damp because of sweat or if I am just feeling the antibiotic ointment I was told to keep using on them.

I just had the miraDry procedure done earlier today. I had about 33 lidocaine shots in each arm, honestly the needle is tiny and it hurts less than a tattoo or even being numbed at the dentist. They are completely tolerable and once you have had the first set of shots, the next couple are barely even felt. I was told I had a smaller arm pit than most so luckily I didn't have to go through as many shots as others have to. The shots on the outer edge of my armpit were probably the only ones that hurt much, and that still was completely bearable. The epinephrine in the shots made me extremely shaky for about 10-20 minutes, and I was told this was normal, and they slowly subsided. The kind RN who performed the injections was kind enough to give me a juice afterwards to calm my nerves, which were probably worsened by the fact that I didn't eat too much afterwards.

After the shots, I then waited for the doctor to come in and give me saline injections in each arm pit, by this point the lidocaine has numbed me pretty well and the injections aren't even felt. The miradry machine was then turned on to my right arm pit. I could feel close to nothing in my arm pits at this point, with the most being a bit of pressure or suction on my armpits. Around the outer edge of my armpits however I did feel a second of heat when the machine was placed on my armpit, on a scale of 1-10 pain-wise it was about a 5 and lasted a second, I was also told that was to be expected and is normal. At this point my left armpit is resting and has a strange feeling going down it, not necessarily painful, but just slightly uncomfortable and I was told was likely the saline moving around. If others feel like I would definitely recommend laying your arm up. I didn't do so until the RN moved onto the miraDry on that arm, but as soon as I lifted it and moved it around a bit the uncomfortable feeling subsided. She then moved onto my left armpit and there were two spots on the edge of the armpit that felt a very hot feeling that would start to become slightly painful. I was told after the first painful spot that if it happened again she would inject lidocaine again, and did so after the second painful spot, that stopped all pain to that area when she continued with the machine. The procedure itself took about an hour, with the majority of the time being in the numbing. I was told I was given a level 2, I wanted a higher level but was told that it depends on the size of the person, the thickness of their armpit, among a variety of other factors, and that if I only received a 50% decrease in sweating that I would be raised to a higher level the next time. The procedure is $2500 for the first time, and $1000 for the next.

After the procedure, I had some numbing in my elbows but had full control of my hands so I was fine to drive home. It has been about 8 hours later and I haven't really felt much pain, it is more of an uncomfortable feeling in parts of my arms. I have iced both armpits since the procedure was over until now, stopping when I took a nap. The swelling is just beginning to get more visible, but isn't painful just tender. I felt that the reviews made it out to seem a lot more painful and scary than it really was. Coming from someone who is horrible scared of shots, I would definitely saw it was a lot better than I would have expected, and so far recover isn't intolerable, it is just difficult to keep an icepack/frozen water bottle under my armpits without falling. As I have kept something cold under my armpits since the procedure ended, I have been laying down all day, and since my armpits are still kind of numb it is difficult to say how my sweating is, but from what I can tell they don't really seem to be sweating...at all?... so far. I was told that sweating can begin again/ increase again after about 5-6 weeks. The RN said she would call and check up on me in a week or so.