Day 1: October 21 for HT with Dr. Koray Erdogan and his support staff.
1. I was picked sharply at 7.45 AM by the ASMED driver
2 At 8 i had the option to have a BF, which i passed.
3.At 8.15 I was given Xanas ( Lighter version of valium) to calm me down by Dr.Umut
4.8.30 AM was given a neck and shoulder massage for 5 mins
5.8.40 i changed into the surgical dress and was there in the operation room
6.8.45 AM Anesthesia shots were give. Yes, it does hurt so be prepared.
7.9.00 AM the extraction phase started from Donor area by Assitant Delek. she made sure i was comfortable all the time
8. 12.45 AM the 2500 grafts was extracted and i was given a break of about 45 minutes for lunch and some little relaxation
9. Again at 13.30, the second phase of incision started. More anesthesia on the recepient area. this hurts even more than the donor area. Dr. Koray does the incision directly after the anesthesia shots. this takes around 40 minutes
10. Once the incision was done, they started with the implantation. Initially Mrs.Delek and Mrs.Melice was doing together . each on one side of the head. After a while Mrs.Delek was replaced by another technician. So at any point of time, 2 techs are implanting the graft
11. I felt nauseating half way during implanting and hence they had to stop for about 10 minutes to give me water and some small break
12. Again they continued and it took around 3 hours to complete the implantation. The sprayes saline solution, put anti septic lotion and then wrapped up with a bandage on my donor area. Things ended around 17.30
13. Dr. Koray made one final check and confirmed all is ok
14 You are given then a medical kit with ice pack, ATP solution which you should apply every one hour . They also give you a neck pillow to use at night
15.When i was leaving, i felt dizzy and i was about to fall. Luckily the support staff helped me and then i had to vomit to get all the things out from my body.
16. All the doctors and support staff waited patiently, took me to a medical room, checked my BP, Sugar and heart rate. Doctor gave me something to drink to avoid dehydration. the entire support crew stood next to me the whole time
17. Once i felt better, i thanked them all and left for the day.
18. To be safer, Dr. Koray sent 2 of his support crew all the way till the hotel. They escorted me to my room and asked me to call them if i need anything else during the night.
I cannot thank enough the doctors and the support staff for such a friendly service.My patient coordinator was Mrs. Sema Aslam. She was very helpful all the way through the surgery and answering all my questions patiently.
The most difficult part to me was the implantation of the graft. Pain along with laying still with no movement will hurt you for sure.
It is a long day with 8 hours of operation time. So be prepared for that.
I will update my pictures later. Also i will update my second day procedure tomorrow.
I hope all works out well.
Regards
Rad