Hello MiraDry Goodbye Sweating!

My story is probably similar to many people that have excessive underarm sweat. I was frustrated after trying every remedy available: prescription creams and anti-perspirants and even Botox injections to try and stop my embarrassing underarm sweat, but to no avail. I had read an article about miraDry, a simple procedure to reduce and in some cases totally eliminates underarm sweat and what I really liked was it was permanent. After much research I made an appointment for a consultation and my procedure at WIFH. I don’t live in Georgia so I was thrilled when I called to schedule and Melissa said they could do the procedure on the same day as my consultation, so convenient! Dr. Kulkin and his nurse practitioner, Charlotte, along with the entire WIFH staff are honest and truly the most experienced, professional team of people you will ever work with. I can’t say enough about them.

The Procedure:
After my consultation with Dr. Kulkin I signed my consent forms and got ready for the procedure. I have to admit I was a little nervous, but Charlotte, Dr. Kulkin’s nurse practitioner put me at ease. She is super friendly and knowledgeable; she explained every step during the process. She answered all my questions and kept me entertained for the next 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The procedure begins while lying down. I wore a sports bra so that I would be covered, but they did have a strapless gown had I forgotten. She measured each underarm and marked them with a marker. Then a stenciled temporary tattoo was placed within the marked area. Dr. Kulkin then came in to infuse the numbing medicine under the skin (they call the technique tumescent anesthesia). Now for me, I have a very high pain tolerance and honestly, I didn’t feel a thing. He gave me one shot of lidocaine in each underarm. Where the shot was injected is where he made a little puncture in the skin. Then he inserted a tiny little tube and moved it around my armpit to administer the numbing fluids and within a few minutes the whole area was completely numb.

Now that I was numb we were ready to start the procedure. The hand-piece looks like a small hair dryer. It suctions your skin up and delivers the microwave energy. Charlotte said she was using the highest power the machine allowed, but that wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t infuse the numbing fluid under the skin, people wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. I believe her because I felt absolutely nothing. I will say, that after about 10 minutes your arm does begin to feel uncomfortable from it being raised over your head and you aren’t able to move it during the procedure. I also started to shake a little and got cold. All of this was normal; Charlotte said it was from the lidocaine fluid. They did give me blankets to help keep me warm. After Charlotte completed the first arm (about 45 min) she gave me an ice pack to start icing the armpit she had just completed and she moved on to the other armpit. Another 45 minutes and I was done. She sent me home with two MiraDry ice packs so that I could continue icing off and on for the rest of the day.

After the Procedure:
It is highly recommended to ice your armpits for the next 24 hours for 20 minutes on 20 minutes off. This helps with the swelling and so I spent my entire day and night icing. The numbing started to wear off about 12 hours later and I did take Ibuprofen when I went to sleep. After 24 hours my armpits felt like it had a small bump (probably where they made the small puncture for the numbing fluid). It still hurt a smidge to lift my arms, but after 48 hours I was able to pick my 1 year old niece up without any problems. After a week, the swelling was almost gone but I still had one small bump in each underarm. It finally went away after about 3 weeks. All in all, I will say it is definitely worth it to get the MiraDry procedure. Thank you to Dr. Kulkin and Charlotte at WIFH! My armpit sweating has completely diminished and couldn’t be happier that there is finally a procedure that works for armpit sweating as well as for the smell. Now if MiraDry can find a way to help with my hands and feet sweat!!