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Hi again Tony,

I sent you an email with the links to both of my online albums.

You really couldn't go wrong with either doctor in my opinion. Both are fantastic although I have to admit, I got more of a warm fuzzy feeling with Dr. Simmons. I think I just had a better rapport with him, but both are extremely good at what they do. Their methods are both very different as well, so hopefully you take that into consideration too.

I can cover the recipient area pretty well with a "strategic" hairstyle, certainly moreso than my first procedure, however I have had a fair amount of shock loss so it is quite thin. Interestingly, I have shock loss in both the recipient AND donor area, which you will most likely notice in my online albums. For simplicity and the sake of saving time, I am wearing a hat everyday to work since it takes too long to style my hair. On weekends, I don't wear a hat to give my head a break from being covered.

The donor site is healing pretty well. My donor scar from my first surgery ranged from 1 to 3 mm in width so Dr. Simmons did a scar revision for my second procedure. In other words, he excised my first scar when taking the new donor strip with the idea that I wouldn't have a second donor scar, and that my scar would hopefully be narrower this time around. I guess time will tell. Hopefully the deep layer sutures that he used to close up the site will have helped. As far as doing fue in the scar, I have heard of people having success with that, but of course there is always the risk that when you transplant into the scar tissue, the blood supply isn't sufficient to get a really good growth yield. That is definitely worth asking about at any consultations you go to.

I know that many doctors recommend that you keep your hair a bit longer prior to a strip surgery, so you will likely want to do the same, especially since you are concerned about the smiley face problem. Alternatively, maybe you could just put some of those crafty googly eyes to complete the smile into a whole face.

It's great that you have family in Ottawa and can take advantage of the convenience of seeing Dr. Rahal while you are there. I live in Ottawa so it was awesome to have a world renowned surgeon in my own local area. It made the followup very easy.

There I go again writing a novel! I hope that my online album is helpful to you. As always, let me know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Kim