JustAGuy

Thank you, Dr. Shapiro, this is very helpful, and was exactly what I was looking for. It's not convenient for me to get to New York any time soon for Dr. Feller to examine my head, but I'll try to see if I can find a more local surgeon in the meantime who can at least try to verify whether I've had actual loss or miniaturization.

I'm a little confused. Dr. Shapiro said: Then Dr. Feller said: But in another thread when I mentioned that I my transplanted hair seemed to start falling out aggressively at 15 months post-op, Dr. Feller said: and also: So, Dr. Feller, I'm not sure I understand your opinion. Is the loss of transplanted hair some time after surgery heard of or unheard of? I'm not trying to start any fight, I just want to understand your position better. Based on your earlier comments, I thought you were saying that such loss was pretty much impossible, but now it seems like you're saying it's actually possible. However, maybe you were agreeing with Dr. Shapiro only on miniaturization and not on actual loss, I'm not certain. I just want to understand this better. And for everyone else, as I've stated consistently, I believe that any failure of my transplant was much more likely to be due to my own biology than to be the fault of Dr. Feller, who performed my surgery. Also, he hasn't had the opportunity to inspect my head since this loss started occurring in order to come to a professional conclusion about what actually happened to me. (But personally, I've lost so much hair that it's hard for me to think that I *didn't* lose a huge amount of transplanted hair.)

I'm glad there's been some good discussion about this issue, and thank you again for those that have expressed support for my frustration. It does take some of the sting out of my experience. For those taking the opposite tack -- I appreciate that since you don't know the story first-hand, you can't necessarily feel comfortable believing me, and that's fine. Though by the same token, neither is it really fair for anyone to attack me without knowing the story first-hand, either. I do want to suggest that some other posters recognize that even if they had a great experience, it's possible that others didn't. It doesn't have to be the case that Dr. Feller's communication is either consistently stellar or consistently lacking. In can be somewhere in the middle. In fact I think that's what's the case. I just know that my own experience was bad -- and that it wasn't a one-time problem. As I explained in my first post, it was difficult to impossible for me to speak to Dr. Feller by phone on each of three separate occasions: pre-consult, post-consult, and post-op. My attempts to talk to him by phone were just consistently bad, plain and simple. Why would I? Dr. Feller did my surgery, so naturally he's the one (and the only one) I thought I talk to. I thought I could get better information from him than from strangers on a message board. And I thought the best way to get in touch with him was the obvious way, calling his office. Truthfully, after leaving messages for his office directly with his receptionist for several weeks, and having had this exact same problem two previous times, it never entered my mind that I should try to contact someone who doesn't work in his office and is listed as a "UK Consultant". (Now I see that you do more than that, but even so, why would I think that going through you would be more successful than going through the receptionist?) And frankly, it does seem like you're trying to divert the blame to me by asking why I didn't contact you, as though that's some failing on my part. But I just can't feel that I did anything wrong by simply trying to contact the doctor that performed my surgery at his office. Anyway, when the dust settles all I'm hoping is that Dr. Feller either makes sure to do a phone visit with any post-op patient who asks for one (and he can certainly charge them for it if he prefers), or else simply informs patients clearly during the initial consult that he's not available to talk to them post-op by phone after X months after their surgery, and that any future consultation will necessitate a trip to his office in New York. Though judging from his responses to this thread, it's hard to say whether either will happen or not.

Okay, first let me thank everyone who supported my basic concern, that Dr. Feller wouldn't speak to me by phone post-op to answer a couple of general questions. For those who are missing the point and/or attacking me, let me clarify some things, even though they were all in my original post: (1) I don't blame Dr. Feller for what seemed to be a failed transplant. If it indeed failed, I believe that it was likely from factors beyond his control. I have never questioned his competency. (And from his post, I now realize that my surgery might not technically be considered a failure.) (2) My overriding concern was simply that Dr. Feller wouldn't talk to me by phone after my surgery to answer some general questions. That's it. I still can't think that it was unreasonable to think that he'd take my call. I certainly would have paid for the phone consultation just like an office consultation, had I been asked to. Also, my questions were general and not specific to my head, which is why I didn't think an office visit was necessary. My questions were, what could cause a transplant to fail after 15 months, and what if anything could I do to try to keep any remaining transplanted hair? (3) The other things I mentioned, like not realizing that Dr. Feller wouldn't be placing the grafts himself and not feeling informed about that prior to surgery, are just minor details. I was just trying to paint a complete picture. Had these been the only issues, I wouldn't have posted here. I posted simply because I wanted people to know that I couldn't get Dr. Feller to talk to me by phone post-op even after over a month of trying. Now, as for the character attacks on me: I was absolutely never the slightest bit irate and aggressive on the phone, period. Even if it were my style -- which it's not -- it would be completely counterproductive. How could I expect that Dr. Feller would be eager to speak to me if I yelled at his staff? For what it's worth, below is a transcript of a representative call, #6. (Yes, I kept records, because from my very first call to the office to inquire about my post-op loss, I had a feeling that I might not be successful in getting to talk to the doctor, based on my past experience, and I also had a feeling that if I posted about my failure to get through here, that people wouldn't believe me, because Dr. Feller is very popular. It turns out I was right on both counts.) Receptionist: Dr. Feller's office. Me: Hi, this is [name], I'm still hoping to talk to Dr. Feller about my hair loss? Receptionist: Oh, did he ever return your phone call, [name]? Me: I'm afraid I never heard from him. Receptionist: Ummmm....okay, hold on. Let me just write a little note here for him.... Okay, give me your phone number, [name]. Me: [phone number] Receptionist: Okay, when did you have surgery? Me: Uh, it was in May 2009. Receptionist: May, two-nine. Okay, I willl give him the message when he gets out of surgery. Me: Okay, thank you very much. Receptionist: Thank you. Me: Bye. If you think it's semi-ridiculous that I'm posting transcripts of the calls, I agree. But I don't know how else to defend myself against the accusation that it was my fault that the doctor wouldn't talk to me because I was supposedly some raving lunatic. And by the way, all my other calls and messages were the exact same tone. I was absolutely never the slightest bit irate or aggressive. Not once. hairthere, I'm sorry our communication went badly. I was just disappointed that I came here primarily to explain that Dr. Feller wouldn't talk to me by phone, and then you ignored that completely and asked to see more pics instead. It really did sound to me like you were just looking to find a way to discredit me. From your subsequent posts, I can't really feel that I was so wrong about that. But if that really wasn't your intent, then I apologize. By the way, I don't live in Brooklyn. I only stayed there for my surgery. I actually live across the country. In fact, early on when the receptionist was pushing me to come in for an office visit, I said that it wasn't really convenient for my to go across the country just to ask a couple of questions, and she asked didn't I live in Brooklyn?, and I explained that no, I don't. Dr. Feller knew where I actually live because we talked about it in my pre-op consult. Granted that he might have forgotten, but I made certain that the receptionist knew that I wasn't anywhere close to their office when I called. Though I want to be clear: Even I lived in Brooklyn (three hours away by train round trip), I still think it's reasonable to expect a surgeon to be willing to answer a couple of general questions by phone post-op, especially after over a month of trying to get through by phone, and especially if I were willing to pay for the phone appointment. Anyway, I think Dr. Feller's responses seems to support my point. Here's how little concern he has for the fact that I couldn't get him on the phone: I think he's kind of making my case for me.

Wow. Dr. Feller thinks it's "simple" for his patients to find time to fly across the country for an office visit, but he can't find time to take a 10-minute phone call from a former patient. I think that says it all. But anyway, it's absolutely not true that I was asked to come in every time I called, as I documented in my post. The receptionist *often* made the request for me to make an office visit, but she certainly didn't do it every time, or even most of the time. You certainly weren't privy to my conversations with the receptionist. But my questions were general in nature: What might cause a transplant to fail, and what if anything could I do to prevent further loss? Any competent physician can speak in general terms about causes and treatments about various afflictions. That's all I was seeking here. If I'd been able to talk to you by phone, presumably you would have given me the answer below (that you thought that perceived loss would be more likely to be native hair than transplanted hair), and if you needed better pictures you could have directed me on exactly what you needed to see. Again, this is absolutely not true. First, I sent no fewer than five separate photos. Second, my hair was wet simply *to better show the loss*, since, by golly, I presumed that's what you wanted to see. If you wanted me to try to hide the loss, I can't fathom how that would have been more helpful to you in reviewing my problem. As anyone can see from the photos, my remaining hair is *long*. Without wetting it down and pulling it to the side, the loss isn't as clearly visible. (In fact, my long hair does thankfully hide much of my loss.) And again, after the surgery I had a nice full head of hair, covering the spots that *now* appear bald in the photo -- which was the point. Frankly, I find that rather shocking. But at least everyone is now forewarned that this is the case. Again, this is simply false. Sharon never, ever communicated to me that it was my native hair that likely fell out vs. the transplanted hair. I absolutely never heard that. Why you thinks you know what Sharon told me, when I was involved in the phone conversations and you weren't, is beyond me. Anyway, my understanding from my pre-op office visit was that grafts would be placed throughout the whole shaved, genetic-loss area, even areas that were not yet balding, to deal with the issue of future native loss, so I wan't expecting future native loss to be so visible. Maybe that was an unrealistic expectation. I think I may have lost some to much of the transplanted hair from my new hairline and temple area (where there was no native hair before), but I can't tell for sure because I don't have good Before pictures of those areas. Again, my issue isn't that this was the practice, only that it wasn't communicated to me directly. I'm sorry I missed it on the website. I think it's not unreasonable to think that it's better if a surgeon explains a procedure in detail, rather than expecting that it's the patient's responsibility to find out for himself. Your memory is better than mine. I don't recall this. I don't deny it happened, I just don't remember it. Maybe I saw it but I thought they were doing only some of the placement and you would be doing most of it. Well, you certainly hid from my phone calls -- as you admitted. I don't deny that I signed a consent form, but did it say that the technicians exclusively would be doing the placement and you wouldn't be doing any? I doubt it. Regardless, again, I just think it's better when a surgeon explains things explicitly. Clearly we have a difference of opinion on that matter. Dr. Feller, if this experience has taught me anything, it's that you don't much care for my feedback. So forgive me if I'm skeptical that you would have been very concerned had I told you about this earlier. In any event, I'm not seeking an apology, and I certainly don't want anyone to be punished, but I do think that Kathy should learn to treat patients with a little more courtesy. (Though I can't extrapolate to other patients' experiences, because maybe she was just having a bad day when I was in.) Which again tells me that you wouldn't have taken any complaint I made seriously. According to you, everything is my fault. Anyway, I don't dispute that she may have had a health reason for not wanting to remove the bandage but, as I said in my initial post, she insisted that removing it wouldn't relieve any pressure (which was wrong), and she was very mean about how she denied my request. Not if the main complaint was that the doctor wouldn't talk to me by phone after my surgery, no.

Thank you for the replies. @TakingThePlunge, my concern wasn't that Dr. Feller didn't do the placement himself, it's that (as I said), he never explained that his staffers would be doing it instead. I can, but I won't. It's completely irrelevant. As I said, the main point I was trying to get across was that it was pretty much impossible for me to get Dr. Feller on the phone, before or after my surgery, so the photos (and the results) are beside the point. And the reason for posting the pic, as I said, was to demonstrate that I think it wasn't so blurry that it was insufficient to show I suffered hair loss post-op. Whether my hair was wet or not is also irrelevant, because under the same conditions as the picture I used to have a full head of hair post-op. My post-op hair simply fell out several months after surgery, and I think the picture is sufficient to show that to the doctor. I resent being made to feel like I'm on trial. It's the reason I waited so long to post here, because this is exactly the kind of response I expected. I'm just a guy who had a failed surgery and tried to explain that my surgeon wouldn't talk to me about it, but instead I'm getting demands for pre-op photos. It's beyond disappointing.

Bad experience with Dr. Feller I had a very bad experience with Dr. Feller in New York, and I wish I'd chosen a different surgeon. Here's the short version: (1) My transplant failed (2) Surgery experience was less than stellar (3) Communication was terrible, including that it was pretty much impossible for me to get Dr. Feller on the phone, before or after the surgery. And the longer version: (1) Failed transplant I noticed my transplanted hair rapidly falling out about 15 months after the surgery, and by a few months after it seemed like I'd lost most of it. I don't blame Dr. Feller for this, because I presume the problem was with my biology and not his skill, but given the other problems, this just rubbed salt in the wound. (2) Less than stellar surgery experience I assumed that Dr. Feller would be placing the transplated hair into my scalp, but after he made the incisions in my scalp, his staffers did all the placement. He had never explained to me that this would be the case. I'm sure I would have chosen him anyway (and perhaps all surgeons do it the same way), but since I'd chosen him specifically because of his reputed skill, I just wish he had explained this beforehand. Communication was bad in general, as I'll explain below. Finally, perhaps about 2/3 of the way through the placement I was extremely uncomfortable from the pain and asked to take a break, and to briefly remove the band from my head to relieve the pressure. One of the staffers, I think her name was Kathy, denied my request, and pretty much barked at me. I repeated my request, but she dismissively insisted that I wouldn't feel any difference from removing the band, and was pretty mean in her tone, which surprised me and of course made me even more uncomfortable. I asked to be able to ask Dr. Feller, so they called him in, and he immediately said it was no problem to take a break and to remove the band temporarily. As soon as I did I felt tremendous relief, despite Kathy's insistence that I wouldn't. Dr. Feller gave me some pain meds and we were able to continue. During my consultation I'd asked about filling in my receding temples but Dr. Feller said there wasn't enough hair from what they would harvest. During the harvesting, Dr. Feller remarked at how dense the harvested hair was, so I asked if that meant that we could do the temples after all, and he agreed. I rather wish I didn't have to be the one to suggest it, and had he not made his comment I wouldn't have known to ask. But to his credit, he graciously did the temple work at no extra charge. (3) Terrible communication This was the main problem, and the reason I decided to share my story. I started my journey by filling out the form on Dr. Feller's site for an "online consultation". I didn't hear back. I called a few days later the receptionist said she'd ask Dr. Feller to give me a call. Again, nothing. I kept calling every couple of days, and kept getting promised a callback, but again nothing. One day I called and the receptionist said, "Dr. Feller looked at the pics you sent and says you need XXXX grafts." I said, "Okay, but I expected an online CONSULTATION, so can I actually ask some questions?" She said she'd ask him to call me, and then of course we continued the charade of my calling every couple of days and never being able to talk to the doctor and his never calling back. I wasn't dissuaded, because I just thought that he was very popular because he was very good and had no need for additional patients because he had all the work he could handle, and that I'd get better attention from him if I became a patient (though I'd later learn I was wrong about that). So one day I finally asked the receptionist if she could just relay my main question to him, which was that I wondered how the surgery would be successful if hair loss continued radiating away from the bald spots he filled in? She said she'd relay my question, and then we resumed my calling periodically and not being able to talk to him and not hearing back from him. One day when I called she said, "I have an answer for you: Dr. Feller said not to worry because you've already lost as much hair as you're going to lose." I knew that Dr. Feller hadn't actually said that, because it was an absolutely stupid statement (I'd had only mild to medium hair loss at that point, I had a lot of hair left to lose, and I was indeed continuing to lose it.) So I knew that she didn't understand whatever it was that he had actually said. I further knew that there was obviously no way I was going to be able to speak to Dr. Feller by phone, because at that point I'd been trying to do so for about FIVE WEEKS. So I gave up and made an appointment and trekked to New York. During the office visit, Dr. Feller gave me the actual answer: He would transplant not just to the bald spots but also to the projected future bald spots, so that when my hair loss continued, I'd already have transplanted hair there. That made sense, but I just wish I'd been able to get that answer by phone or email after several weeks of trying. I scheduled my appointment for surgery, and paid the deposit of $2500. A few days later I remembered another question I'd forgot to ask, so I called, thinking that things would be different once I was a paying patient, but that wasn't the case. When he wasn't available to speak to me, I asked if the receptionist if I could make an appointment to talk to him by phone. She said, "We don't really do that," and that if I wanted to make an appointment it would have to be an office visit and I'd have to come to the office(!). I asked why I couldn't just make an appointment to talk to him by phone, and she repeated that, "We just don't really do that." So I finally just basically inisted that as a paying patient I be spared the hassle of going to their office just to ask a simple question, and she reluctantly made a phone appointment for me. I was then able to talk to the doctor at the prescribed time, but I was kind of astounded at how different it was to make that happen. The surgery was initially a success and I couldn't have been happier. Then 15 months after the surgery I started noticing my transplanted hair falling out rapidly. By a couple of months later it seemed like I'd lost most of it. I didn't think there was anything that could be done, but I figured I should ask anyway, so I tried to contact the office...and you can probably guess the rest. Early on the receptionist suggested that I submit some pictures so Dr. Feller could see the new loss, so I did. A week later I hadn't heard back, so I called and left a message. Nothing. I called a week after that and left another message. Again, nothing. I called about a week after that and this time a different person answered the phone, who said Dr. Feller was in surgery, that she wasn't the receptionist and wouldn't take a message for me, and that I should call back later. I called back later and got the receptionist, and since it had been a solid month since my initial inquiry into my failed surgery, I asked if I could make a phone appointment to talk to Dr. Feller? Typically, she suggested that I make an appointment to come into the office, all the way across the country. I persisted in asking for the phone appointment, and she said she'd ask him if that were possible. She called back and said that Dr. Feller said the pictures I sent weren't clear, and could I come in to the office so he could see better? (groan) I suggested I just re-take the pictures, and asked what he meant by "not clear". Did he mean blurry? "Yes, blurry," she said. (I submit one of the pictures below so you can decide whether it was really too blurry to be useful.) So I had I feeling that she wasn't relaying what he actually said accurately, just as she mis-relayed the answer to my pre-op question. So I said I needed to know exactly what he needed to see that he wasn't seeing so that I didn't send more useless photos and waste his time and mine? She said she'd ask him for clarification and get back to me. I asked if I could speak to him directly so there would be no miscommunication, and she said she'd run my request by him. Of course, I don't know why Dr. Feller needed to see the pics in the first place. I just had a couple of simple, general questions: What might have caused the transplanted hair to fall out, and was there anything I can do to prevent any remaining transplanted hair (if any) from falling out? But I never got to ask those questions, much less get an answer. I called the next day and left a message. Nothing. I called a week later and left another message. Nothing. At that point I gave up. It had been about six weeks since my initial inquiry about the failed surgery. It's now been over a month since my last attempt, so clearly this is a lost cause. ------ Again, I want to stress that I don't question Dr. Feller's competence, and that the failure of my surgery was probably to factors beyond his control. What I'm more concerned about is the fact that he wouldn't even deign to talk to me about it. Dr. Feller strikes me as someone who enjoys being a successful surgeon not because of a genuine desire to help people, but rather because of the status and accolades he gets. That's just the impression I get. If my transplant was destined to fail no matter who did the surgery, I wish I had chosen a different surgeon.