I came in wanting lipo on the backs of my arms and on my stomach because I was unhappy about the extra fat in those areas despite efforts to get rid of it. I was talked out of surgery and steered toward "cool sculpting". She said it would be easier and the result would be the same, so I agreed to the cool sculpting. Basically that is when a cup with a cord to a "vacuum" is placed on the area of fat and it is sucked up into the cup and essentially frozen so that the fat cells die and the fat slowly disappears. I was supposed to go through two treatments of 3 hours.
On my first treatment, Dr. B said she had never done this before so we are going to "see what happens". Didn't really give me a feeling of confidence. She placed the suction cups on the back of each arm up really high by my armpit (we did one arm at a time). I didn't feel like this was the area I had the problem with but she said it was the right placement. The lower backs of my arms are what bothered me and the cups were on the top part almost in my armpit. First of all, the vacuum is painful. I was told it would be mild discomfort, but it was painful. I went through an hour on each arm, and then on the fat above my belly button. Afterwards, I had soreness to the touch for a few days, but I was ok. I couldn't feel the areas as it was numb and tingly for a couple weeks.
The day after I got my first treatment, I noticed huge bruises on the backs of my arms near my armpit where the suction had been. I didn't think it was normal. I told the doctor's office and they acted shocked, which made me uneasy, but the bruises went away after a week and it was ok. I'm thinking "well since she has never done this before, obviously she missed where she should put the cups. Hopefully this won't damage my results."
On my next treatment, I went in for my appointment at 9am, and waited for about 30 minutes to be brought in for my appointment while the receptionist chatted with someone at the window. Keep in mind this person wasn't a patient and they were having casual conversation, so it really annoyed me that she just let me sit there while she talked. I went downstairs and was told Dr. B wasn't even there to do my treatments, but the nurse was going "to try to do my stomach" even though she didn't seem like she knew what she was doing either.
So we treated my stomach and was told I had to come back for an extra appointment to do my arms. Keep in mind that at this point they are raving about how much my arms have changed and I didn't see any difference. Still nothing said about my stomach.
I come back another month later (the earliest appointment they had) and she treats the backs of my arms. which was the final treatment, still nothing said about my stomach. Now I did begin to notice a difference in my arms after the second treatment, however, one arm is concave in the back one top and still fat on the bottom from ill placement of the vacuum. During this treatment, on one arm my hand started to go numb because nerve was being pinched and she had to come in and stop the treatment and re-adjust. So that took an extra 30 minutes. Didn't hurt, but again made me think she placed the suction cup in the wrong area AGAIN.
After that I waited six weeks to come in a let them look at the final results.
I went in Tuesday 8/23 for my follow-up and she talked about how great my arms looked and everything. Well I had noticed on my right arm that there was still a very fat area of my arm above my elbow that didn't match the rest of my arm. I showed her how the back of my right arm was concave and she goes "well I think only you notice it". I'm thinking, THAT'S THE POINT. I notice it and I don't like it. She said "well I can fix it, but it won't be for free; I'll give you local on your arm and we can suck that fat right out because I don't want to use the cool sculpting on that area. I'll give you a discount" She leaves the room and a nurse comes back with a $1100 bill for the correction. This is for a correction on the spot of my arm that was the whole reason I went to see her in the first place. Keep in mind I already dropped about $3800 for the treatments I already had. So at this point I'm pretty irritated and walk out. I can't believe that she was an amateur on this machine and since she treated me incorrectly, was willing to fix her mistake. I get that this kind of treatment doesn't have a full guarantee, but when I come in for one area to be treated and fixed and it not, that's frustrating. In fact, it was the area completely around this area that was treated.
Btw, she also never even acknowledged my stomach treatments or asked about them.
I won't be going back here again. I recommend looking at other offices for treatment after this experience. read more
