Be Informed-Be Patient - Wall, NJ

Hello,
I had the coolsculpting procedure done on my lower abs on April 24th, and my flanks on April 29th. I am 46 years old and in decent shape with stubborn fat around my abdomen. The procedure itself was not bothersome to me. A little strange at first on the lower abs, I compared it to getting a mammogram! It wasn't comfortable, but not painful. Especially after about 3 minutes, it was numb and totally fine. Afterwards I was a little swollen and sore, and the massage was uncomfortable again, but not painful. I was a little sore for about 4 days, and then the pain started. Like others have described, it was shooting, stinging, stabbing pains that got worse days 5 and 6. I could barely function and could not sleep. On a scale of 1-10 the shooting pains would be a 9. The only thing that really worked for me was ice. I used BioFreeze spray and took Motrin, but for the most part they only helped a little bit. I have a soft icepack that goes in a belt that I wore around my waist almost 24 hours a day for 4 days. The Dr's office gave me a prescription for a painkiller, but it didn't help the pain, just helped me sleep a little bit. By day 10 I felt much better and by day 14 it was gone. The pain was only in my abs, mostly lower. Flanks didn't hurt at all. As far as the pain goes, my advice is- BE PREPARED to be in pain between days 5-10. Not everyone has pain, but some people do, and if you think you'll have zero down time and no pain, you may be disappointed, scared, and angry if it happens. If you expect it to happen and it doesn't, all the better!! It's definitely a possibility, and they don't know why, so they won't be able to tell you if it will happen to you or not. As a matter of fact, they will likely tell you that you won't be in any pain at all. Hopefully, if you are doing research, you'll read reviews like these and won't have any surprises. If you are in pain now, just know that it WILL go away.
Results: I started seeing some results around 3 weeks. I am now 5 weeks and am very happy so far. Lost about 1/2 inch in lower abs and 3/4 in upper ab/flank area. Will try to post some pics, but had trouble in my first review and NOTHING showed up.
My advice about results: Also BE PREPARED that you may not have good results. In my extensive research I found an article by a physician that said 7 out of 10 people have good to very good results, but 3 of those 10 have no results at all. Again, they do not know why, so they won't be able to tell you if you'll have results or not. Definitely research your Dr's office and make sure whomever is doing the procedure has a lot of experience. It will make a difference in your experience and your results.
Also, I encourage people who have pain to report it to their physician's office, maybe if more people report the pain, the offices will be more forthcoming about the possibility of the pain after treatment.

Went for my 8 week consultation today. So far I have good results, but one problem. There is one area that is either not responding, or responding much slower than the others, so there's a bulge. My technician didn't seem to have seen this before. She did say to wait another 4 weeks to see if it goes away, and if not I'll need one more treatment just in this middle area. You'll see in the pictures exactly what I mean. According to her measurements, I've lost 3 inches on upper abs (pretty much right under bra strap) and 2 on the lower abs (right across belly button). The loss on the upper abs is making the lower abs seem to protrude more. But you'll also be able to see that the very lower part of the abs is flatter, it's just the middle that is still there. I'm not sure what to think. It has shrunk a little, so I'm hoping that it will continue to shrink and the overall look will even out. Worst case scenario, I'll get one more treatment on that middle area.