heatfan2345

After a good bit of research, thanks in part to you guys, I decided to go with a transplant with Dr. Glenn Charles in Boca Raton, Florida. The cost was a big part of the decision for me, and he was the most reasonable of the real doctors (i.e., not Bosley) in the Palm Beach area. After meeting with him, I felt very comfortable. He was no-BS, didn't promise me anything, and generally made me feel very good about my prospects. He decided that 2200 grafts would be a good start for me now, and I decided to do the procedure less than 2 weeks later (there happened to be an opening). On procedure day, I showed up and was pretty quickly in the chair ready to go. The chair was comfy and there was a TV set up right in front of me. The staff had set it to morning Nickelodeon, though of course I could have changed it or put in a DVD had I wanted. As is normally the case, the only pain I felt through the whole procedure was the lidocaine injection, but that was minor. After that, Dr. Charles removed the strip, sutured it up, and made the recipient area incisions. After I had a nice sub for lunch and the techs had dissected out the grafts, they dropped the grafts in as I tuned in to some old Walker Texas Ranger reruns. Man, they're bad. So the procedure was easy, and the recovery has been mostly easy. My donor site has been seemingly extra tender, and it made for crappy sleeping for almost a week; I really couldn't find a good sleeping position. However, I went to work the day after the procedure and left work early only on the second day because I could not stay awake. Other than that, it's generally been easy and the donor site pain is fading. Yesterday, on day 10, I went in for suture removal. That was easy, and he gave me the go ahead to start getting back to normal (his early instructions would allowed me to a couple of days ago, but I figured I'd wait until I saw him first). Last night I splashed on some baby oil and removed the scabs from the recipient area. I'm ready to go out without a hat for the first time, though my head is still a little red. I have posted some pre-procedure photos. I figured there's no much to show right now, but I'll keep you guys posted. Dr. Charles did a great procedure and made me feel very comfortable throughout. Hopefully the results will be just as good.