Marko Ramius

OK Arrie, I just looked over your blog, and I have to say that you suffered from a problem similar to mine. I think our hair types are a little different, but same pattern of loss. I am also not one of those people who would look good with a shaved/bald head, like Ed Harris or Sean Connery. I have shaved my head before, just for the hell of it, and I look like an alien. Picture a pasty-white Sam Cassell. I got in the neighborhood of 1500 grafts. They didn't give me an exact number. The doc just said he was going to cut me a deal, and that it would be in the area of 1500. The techs mentioned that I had "a lot of 3's", whatever that means, relative to the other grafts. They didn't give me an exact number. They just kind of cut and poked on me, and went to town. So far, so good.

I'd like to add that I have done my research on the topic, and I am proud to say that I will be attending an osteopathic medical school very soon. I start in a month, and this is a career-change for me. I have never been more excited.

Okay, so I just took my first "real" shower, where I gently massaged the recipient area, used the conditioner, etc., and I have no more actual scabs whatsoever now. I've got all the little hairs sticking straight up, and very minimal crusting. The underlying scalp is a little pink. Nothing that looks like dried blood though. Any possible reason that I might be healing a little faster than expected? Or is this normal? I just keep reading about everyone crusting for weeks and weeks, but for me, on day six, it looks like the bulk of that may be behind me. Or will it come back? Anyway, here are the possibilities I have come up with: 1. I'm super-intelligent, and my head receives an unusually large amount of blood-flow to run my unusually-powerful brain. A side-effect of this is that my scalp is able to heal quickly. 2. I'm super-stupid, and since my brain requires little blood-flow, the majority of the blood that goes to my head can be used to heal the scalp. 3. I'm a triathlete in a hot climate, meaning that my skin is going to be pretty well vascularized, for cooling and whatnot, so maybe I'm getting the benefits of that here. 4. Graftcyte speeds up this healing process, and I've used it pretty religiously.

Dr. Bernstein: I got mine done by Daniel McGrath in Austin, TX. He's one of like two people here who does this. He is fellowship-trained in the procedure, and this seems to be almost all he does. As for how good he is, I really don't know, as I have nothing to compare it to, but so far, so good. I do know that he does this all the time, so he's got plenty of practice. I couldn't find any reviews on him on the internet, but with this sort of thing, I'd imagine that no news is good news. Anyway, he seems to be pretty good at this, and he was willing to work with me financially to get it all in under my budget, but still be thorough. --------------------------------------- Janna: Thanks for the reply. The graftcyte treatment I'm using is the spray. I'm out of the 4x4's already. And even if there's no real reason to keep using the spray, what else am I going to do with it? Is there any reason not to use the spray? Thanks!

The "total person" thing is just a catch-phrase to attract applicants to osteopathic schools, which typically do not have the backing of a major university, or the name-recognition that goes along with it. Originally, the DO was meant to be the "small-town do-it-all" doctor. Hence the extra training in musculoskeletal manipulation. The DO training was geared to produce physicians that you could see for any number of problems, including things that could be corrected or relieved by this manipulation, kind of like you might see a chirpractor for. Today, there is little, if any difference between the average DO and the average MD. Its pretty much the exact same thing. Same classes in med school, same residency training opportunities, and so-on. Osteopathic schools tend to attract a lot of older applicants. People who went back to school after being out for a while. Lots of ex-paramedics, PA's, and people from completely unrelated fields who go to DO schools.

Not all of them, but some scabs and crusts are coming off at the slightest touch. Just lightly brushing my fingers over the recipient area will easily produce some flaking. Am I OK, or do I need to be extra-careful? I should add: I've been using the graftcyte treatments to keep the area moist, pretty regularly, and I typically wear a hat at work. I work at a busy hospital, and I figure that it is probably in my best interest to keep everything covered up, with God-knows-what floating around in there. There has been no bleeding. Just a little itchy at times, and these crusts are flaking off.

Not all of them, but some scabs and crusts are coming off at the slightest touch. Just lightly brushing my fingers over the recipient area will easily produce some flaking. Am I OK, or do I need to be extra-careful? I should add: I've been using the graftcyte treatments to keep the area moist, pretty regularly, and I typically wear a hat at work. I work at a busy hospital, and I figure that it is probably in my best interest to keep everything covered up, with God-knows-what floating around in there. There has been no bleeding. Just a little itchy at times, and these crusts are flaking off.