I had heard from many people that the office is very nice, and they were right. It is modern and clean. The staff are super friendly and very professional.

When I first arrived, I was given about 5 pages of papers to read and checkbox and sign. Standard stuff really. Allergies, waivers, payment, etc.

Then a nurse gave me a HUGE button up shirt to change into and then took my blood pressure and gave me a few pills to swallow. An anti-biotic and I don't even remember what the others were. She double checks that you had followed the pre-op list and weren't on other medications and such. She also questions you about your laxity exercises. Quite honestly I didn't really do them as much as I should have. I probably did them for about 5-10 minutes and MAYBE once a day, but more like every other day when I remembered to and only for about 2 weeks. Pathetic really considering how much is at stake. This started to concern me as I became very aware that if they can't get enough grafts from the donor area, I'd be royally screwed! I didn't tell her that though. I just hoped for the best at this point as there is nothing I can really do about it anymore.

The moral of that story is DO YOUR LAXITY EXERCISES OR RISK YOUR WHOLE PROCEEDURE.

I didn't know what to really expect going into this, and I purposely didn't watch any videos of the proceedure b/c I'm kind of squeemish and already freaking out abou the whole thing as it is. So they offered me valium in either 5mg or 10mg. I opted for the lesser dosage as I didn't want to be all loopy in case (and potentially say something stupid).

I had never met Dr. Hasson before this moment, nor even knew what he looked like actually. He has a South African accent that I personally found very comforting and calming. He checked my laxity -- thankfully he said it was very good and we'd have no trouble getting the 2500-3000 grafts we were going for.

We then discussed the hairline. He drew one on me and said, "okay this is about 2500" and we talked about the shape and my forehead (or eight-head as I jokingly called it). He then drew a second line to represent the 3000 mark. One thing I really appreciated was he never tried to "upsell" me. In fact the opposite. He told me not to go too crazy as it wouldn't look right and natural for my face / age / hair / forehead / etc. I appreciated that very much. At that point I released control to him and said, "You know what, you've done this a thousand times, I trust you, you do what you think is right for me". And I never worried about it again.

I was also quite concerned about having the top of my head buzz-cut and given my social life how that would put me out of commission for longer than I anticipated. Dr. Hasson made a valiant effort to try and accomodate me, but in the end I told him that I wasn't going to jeopardize a $13,000 surgery for a couple months worth of hair. If he needed to buzz it, so be it. Unfortunately, he did have to he said. Oh well. It'll grow back right? It's just the front top part, so I think I can be creative with the back and comb it forward in what I call my "Roman" style. I usually get compliments when I wear it that way vs. spiking it up anyways, so we'll see...

On an aside note, Dr. Hasson also has a sarcastic or dry sense of humor which I also quite enjoyed. He had me laughing many times. One of my favorite stories is when he was putting in the staples and my head was all numb. I asked him, "After this numbing stuff wears off what is my head going to feel like?" and without even skipping a beat and with a totally serious expression he retorts, "Well, for the first month it is going to be excruciatingly painful..." LOL!!! The doc's got jokes!

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