Irishstreak

I would limit the biking and basketball for a few more weeks. In biking when you are slouched position you are taking up all the slack of the posterior tissues and fascia aka the thoracolumbar fascia that connects up to the cervical spine, then your skull. Staying in the slouched position could easily create a slow prolonged stretch which could cause lengthening of the tissues. Basketball would likely be fine, as your head is up and you're not straining the tissues much. In this case I would use the feeling of a pull or sharp pain as a reminder of when you're doing too much. Easing into basketball and starting casually would likely be fine. Thats my 2 cents.

Orlhair1-

Thanks for the post. I just started to see the tips of some hairs coming through which is exciting. Your 2 month 1 wk posts look nice and I look forward to getting to that point. Happy growing to ya. Cheers.

Considering1-

I'm sorry I can't give you any information concerning his opinion on this topic as we did not discuss it. If I am experiencing any it can't be much. I feel like I'm pretty much back to where I started and now just waiting for the grafts to start to grow. If you want to contact his office to get some info concerning his opinion the number is 1800 374 2237.

I'm finally catching up to posting again. I took these Tuesday morning on post op day 14. The hairs from the grafts are starting to fall out as I was educated would happen around this time. Its a bit of a bummer, but knowing this was to be expected allowed me to be at ease as it occurs.

Dude513-

Thanks for the message. Though things are happening as expected, I'm a bit bummed out watching all the hairs from the grafts fall out. I can't wait to see the results at 6 and 12 months post op. Glad to hear from others who are happy with their end results!

Fellas-

Hope everyone is doing well. I just had another thought that might put some at ease... de-training effects don't occur for 8-10 days in weekend worrier type athletes and may take up to 14 days in elite athletes or olympic level athletes. I ran my 5k on post op day 11 in 20:50 which was only a few seconds slower than the one I ran a week before my HT, but it was also a different course. Best of luck to all the athletes out there in taking some healthy rest time post op and then getting back to their sports and peak performance quickly.

Great response Rich91403. If you want to know how long you need to take off of intense aerobics and intese weight lifting stay away from all the opinions and look to human physiology...

Look at the processes of wound healing (i.e. Inflammatory, proliferative, remodeling) and the timelines. With that known and pending you are healthy and took good care of the wound then you are likely well outside of the inflammatory and granulation processes of the wound by days 8 or 10 and its safe to return to activity. So, between a good diet of veggies, good proteins, and plenty of antioxidants (i.e. tea, coffee, pomagrante joice)... then keeping with wound clean and covered with antiobiotic ointment, etc. You should be quite confident in going back to heavy workouts after about 10 days (which is what Dr. Haber recommended to me). When getting my staples out today I asked if the scar looked good (Pos Op day 8 for me) and they said it looked great (a byproduct of a good surgeon, good diet, being healthy, and good wound care) so I will be competing in a 5k this saturday (post op day 11) and going back to heavy lifting and long runs next week. Taking off 30 days or 2 months is extremely unnecessary and is without any science. If I feel pain (often your first indicator of tissue damage) then I will back down from something, but otherwise I plan on going full go next week. 10-14 days is all you need to rest before going back to full go and a healthy life style which will assist in the healing process as well. (FYI I am a Doctor of physical therapy and do wound care in my practice)

So I went back to work and instead of doing kind of a spiked messy look I just kept my hair flat and kept it down. I kind of fluffed (not a word I really like but it fits) the hair back and forth around the donor area. Can you see any staples?? I couldn't. I followed Dr. Habers recommendation on having the back of my hair at least an inch long prior to surgery and that has seemed to work out pretty well. Pretty much I cut my hair with a #7 and #8 with the clippers I had about a week and a half before the surgery and that seemed to be perfect. You couldn't really see the staples at all. In the 2 days I've been back to work I haven't recieved any comments except form 2 people who said, "new hair cut,... I like it". I'm not saying that my colleagues haven't noticed that I had a HT, but I haven't received any comments asking what happened. I was prepared to tell people "I had some work done" if they asked, but I haven't had to go there. I think just being honest with people makes it easier to clear the air and feel confident about your decisions. I think because the redness is gone and you can't really see the scabs, it is likely hard for most people to tell a major difference since they haven't seen me for a week. You can compare the pics on here and on my page and judge for yourself. Again, sorry for the ones comi

I received a call from Dr. Haber checking to make sure everything was well. He really is a great guy and its been a great experience working with him. Post op day 2 I felt pretty good and only took pain medication to sleep. Post op day 3 wasn't too different than day 2, except that I can see that most of the redness has gone away and the few small sandy scabs that there are have hardenede and will start to come off soon. If you want to see more detail go to my personal page for more blogs and pics....

From the initial consult through the end of surgery I continued to have a great experience. At the initial consult the meeting with Doreen and Dr. Haber went a long ways. Doreen came across as someone not as a salesman, but someone simply there to answer questions and help you achieve any goals I may have. With this procedure being so costly and having such long term effects I really wanted to meet my surgeon before the procedure. This was standard protocol with Dr. Haber (I went to another office twice and never met the surgeon) and went a long ways with me. In addition to that, he came across as an incredibly knowledgeable, sincere, and skilled surgeon who was quite humble despite all his accomplishments. Furthermore, I felt he displayed a calm but knowledgeable confidence as I spoke to him that left me feeling that there could be few other surgeons with his level of expertise and skills. Being in the medical profession I feel that the ones who publish research and are highly involved in educating others are often some of the elite in their field. Dr. Haber helps educate people all over the world and after searching for his work on Pubmed and seeing his awards/accomplishments I was confident I would have a hard time finding someone as skilled, knowledgeable, and geinuingly caring as him.

For more info concerning my experience day of surgery please see my personal blog. In short, the entire day of surgery went great. I experienced barely any pain, enjoyed some massage, had some great conversation with Dr. Haber and his staff, and genuiley the surgical proceduce. After the procedure I put on a hat to go over to Target to pick up a few movies (300 and Limitless to be exact...great flicks!!), celebrate with a steak and some sauteed bell peppers (a couple good wound healing foods), and went home feeling confident I had made a good decision.

So I wanted to post some pics for those who have browsed through this blog but haven't read my personal blog.

Mick-

Thanks for the post. Though he is such an amazing surgeon, I was suprised there weren't more pics and postings online for him. Maybe its because he's humble, or maybe its b/c he doesn't need to recruit patients with such a well respected reputation, I'm not sure. But I wanted to make sure I got the word out because I was kind of lost initially when I started looking for surgeons. I've had a great experience so far and the process has been incredibly smooth.

The aim was for 2500 and I was happy to hear that the donor strip had greater density than estimated. It ended up being 2703 grafts and 5287 hairs.

Thanks "TakingThePlunge" and "NEWHAIRPLEASE". Reading the blogs and seeing the photos of other members helped me decide that a HT would be a good choice for me and what I could expect throughout the process.

I first met Dr. Haber when I was in college when I was looking for a local dermatologist. He impressed me as being incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and genuine. So after a good deal of research, going to other HT consultations, meeting Dr. Haber personally, and reading up on some of his other patients, I was completely comfortable with my decision.

Today is post op day 1 and I haven't taken any medication at all. There was a bit of blood on the pillow case that they gave me to sleep on which was to be expected. Other than that I feel great and am just spraying the grafts down with saline spray about every half hour as instructed. So far so good! Cheers.