Hello everyone,
I have just recently had a surgery with Dr. Glenn Charles of Boca Raton yesterday. In total I had 2106 grafts (FUT) filled in the frontal to improve volume and strengthen hairline. I am a NW type 2.
Overall, it was an extremely smooth and comfortable experience. The office staff was very kind to me the second I walked in for the consultation. I knew the quality of their services and I signed up for surgery the following week. During the consultation, Dr. Charles does not beat around the bush nor give you false hopes and expectations. He is straight forward and very professional and will give you his hnest opinion on your situation and goals.
The surgery:
I woke up (Fri October 08, 2010) and had a great big breakfast that my girlfriend made me before going. I get there at 9.15 and headed to the Docs office to take some pre op pics and go over the goals again and what to expect in the procedure. He is very charismatic and will make you feel at ease throughout. You walk into the surgery room and all the assistant are very nice. They sit you down and begin to to prepare. They inject the anesthetics where the strip will be removed and the frontal area of your head (ie wherever the recipient area will be)... REMEMBER this is probably the worst part of the procedure. It will feel like pouring lemon juice on a cut.. You will start to feel your head very heavy and numb like someone is putting on a tight helmet. They cut the strip with no pain and the Doc seals it like an artist... OH BY THE WAY... my beautiful girlfriend was with me the whole procedure.. my attention was all on her... but another alternative is watching a list of great movies they have for you to choose from... so the doc gives the strip to the assistants to cut and he closes the strip... he even showed my gf the scar and she was like woooooowww doc you got a talent.. i mean i saw it and its a pencil lin on the back of my head.. in two weeks nothing will be visible (barely detectable) .... so this whole part of injecting and cutting and stitching is approx 45mins... then everything is a piece of cake... remember.. whenever you have any discomfort or pain just let the staff know and they will immediately put more anesthetics and make it as easy and as pain free as possible...
so while the assistants cut, dr. charles starts to create the wholes in the recipient area and does it at certain angles so that the hairs grow at the natural direction.. while all if this is going on, my girlfriend is in the room with us and we are all casually talking and everyone sets a relaxing ambience for me... at 1230 they ordered lunch for us which was very kind of them to do... after lunch they kept on inserting the grafts into the holes and at approx 3pm i was finished and headed to the drs office to take some pics and go over the post op recovery care... he gives you a little package to take home and gives a call later that night to see how you are doing and to see if you have any questions... he leaves his cell number on the post op instructions sheet and he is always available for you....
So now you guys are probably thinking - where are the pics??? well i had forgotten to request them.. but they are no different than the other pics other patients have had with dr charles... I will be posting pics very soon..
Right now its Day 1 after surgery (Sat Oct 09, 2010) and its late so I have no patience to go back and check grammar,,, i apologize to all you english scholars....
ANOTHER THING TO ADD IS: I know you guys hve read similar stories about this Dr and find this whole procedure log repetitive... but let me tell you that overall, its was a great experience.. nothing as bad as it seems I highly recommend this doctor by all means... but i owe a lot to my girlfriend too... she was with me throughout the WHOLE procedure and shes holding the ice on the back of my head as i am writing this...
so please write back with any questions about anything i might have forgotten to mention and i will get the pics in as soon as i can...
Thanks