yourcoach

I am another Dr. Cooley patient that first saw Dr. Griffin for a consult. The price difference was extraordinary. With such a good feeling from Dr. Cooley, positive comments on the forum, and looking at results, it became a very easy decision. I am 5 months post and for various personal reasons haven't been active on the forum or have posted pictures in a while. None of the reasons have anything to do with the hair transplant. Feel free to send me a message if you want to see my progress in person. Good luck.

I am way overdue on what were supposed to be monthly updates. There is not a ton to report. I do have a bunch of baby fine hairs in the recipient areas. I've had some camera trouble, so no pictures today. I'm not confident that the new hairs on my head will show up on a photograph because of how light they are. I continue to have some itching along the scar line. I think one of the reasons I have been putting off writing in the blog is I have been trying very hard not to think about the hair transplant at all. Knowing that I still have many months of waiting before I can expect to see meaningful results seems to instinctively make me want to zone out on the whole thing until there much more to see. I will try to push through it and do better. Carl

I am way overdue on what were supposed to be monthly updates. There is not a ton to report. I do have a bunch of baby fine hairs in the recipient areas. I've had some camera trouble, so no pictures today. I'm not confident that the new hairs on my head will show up on a photograph because of how light they are. I continue to have some itching along the scar line. I think one of the reasons I have been putting off writing in the blog is I have been trying very hard not to think about the hair transplant at all. Knowing that I still have many months of waiting before I can expect to see meaningful results seems to instinctively make me want to zone out on the whole thing until there much more to see. I will try to push through it and do better. Carl

My pain almost completely subsided within a few days of writing about it. I get a lot of different types of headaches: migraines, tension headaches, and icepick headaches. With icepick headaches, they are a short lived headache that feels like you were stabbed in the head with an icepick. The pain I was feeling was like very minor icepick headaches. Dr. Cooley, who had never heard of a patient having this pain, consulted with other doctors. None of them had heard of anyone having this discomfort. Considering that my pain has passed, and no one else has had the pain, I wouldn't worry about it. Carl

Steve, I'm another happy Dr. Cooley patient. I am only one month out, so I am nowhere near seeing any results. What I can share is the excellent care that I received. I've actually communicated more with Dr. Cooley after the procedure than before. His after care is truly excellent. I had a large session of almost 4,700 grafts. I felt very comfortable that decisions about hairline and total grafts were made by me with guidance from Dr. Cooley and his team. He is very patient regarding these big decisions. We looked at and discussed a number of options before decisions were made. I felt very good that I wasn't being pushed hard on such important choices. When you are dealing with such personal decisions, your ability to be on the same wavelength with the doctor is real important. I'm happy to answer any specific questions I can regarding my experience. Good Luck, Carl

I found it helpful finding my own Dr. references. There are plenty on these boards. I reached out to them with emails requesting to speak with them on the phone. I got enough responses to have the conversations I needed to help me make my decision. If it is possible, an in person consult really can make a big difference in making you feel comfortable with your decision. I chose Dr. Cooley. I am only one month post op, but, so far, I am extremely please with my decision. As others have said, when you are choosing between doctors that are all at the top of their profession like you are, the biggest differences are going to be the intangibles. For me, Dr. Cooley has really shined in that area. I have felt extremely well called for in all respects. Keeping asking questions until you are comfortable. Good Luck, Carl

I'm one month post-op so I've updated my weblog with a couple of new pictures. Carl

I'm taking six months of complete bed rest, but I'm extremely lazy. Carl

Dwayne, Things appear to be coming along nicely. I hope I am wrong, but I am sensing some small cracking in your patience. Being a whole 2 weeks post surgery and two days post suture removal, I'm a lot closer to last hear the doc say 9 - 12 months before we concern ourselves with any sort of judgment of results. I think while hair transplant technology moves forward, someone should be working on a formula for HT patients that, starting immediately after surgery, lets us see what our hair will look like after a year every time we look in a mirror. Who do we get working on this? I've said this in a number of private messages to you, but I want to take this opportunity in a public forum to thank you again for all of your ongoing help and support during my HT journey. Carl

Eman: I vaguely remember Dr. Cooley doing both putting a warm wash cloth on the area and then pointing on some kind ointment first thing and then cleaned up my scalp, then snipped the stitches. To be honest, I wasn't paying that close attention to what he was doing. We were chatting the whole time, and of course it was all going on behind my head. Carl

Got the new 12 day post surgery pictures up on my weblog. Take a look. Eman: No prep on the sutures before going in. To be honest, I'm not sure what that is all about. Carl

I would like to make an open offer to anyone in the Atlanta area to get in touch with me to see, first hand, my hair transplant at whatever stage it happens to be in when they want to see it. I see this as a small "pay it forward" gesture considering all of the help and direct input I got from the group and specific individuals that I contacted from the group. Carl

I would like to make an open offer to anyone in the Atlanta area to get in touch with me to see, first hand, my hair transplant at whatever stage it happens to be in when they want to see it. I see this as a small "pay it forward" gesture considering all of the help and direct input I got from the group and specific individuals that I contacted from the group. Carl

I'm 12 days post surgery. I got my stitches out and head cleaned up by Dr. Cooley today. He said the donor scar and recipient areas are healing great. He took pictures and will be emailing them to me. I will post them on my weblog when I get them in the next few days. Overall everything is going great with one exception. I continue to have some allover pain, with some stabbing pain also. I'm not too worried because, as I said, Dr. Cooley said everything is healing well. No signs of any infection. Hopefully it will fade in the next few days. I hesitated to even post about it, but Dr. Cooley encouraged me to share it. He wants people to know it all. He doesn't want anything held back. As far as I am concerned, his attitude about absolute full disclosure is one more very important reason to respect him. I will post the following in a separate post as well here for maximum exposure in order to hopefully help the most people possible. I would like to make an open offer to anyone in the Atlanta area to get in touch with me to see, first hand, my hair transplant at whatever stage it happens to be in when they want to see it. I see this as a small "pay it forward" gesture considering all of the help and direct input I got from the group and specific individuals that I contacted from the group. Carl

Thanks again for all of the support. I am going back to see Dr. Cooley this Monday morning to have my stitches removed and confirmation that things are progressing as they should be. As I've continued to have conversations with Dr. Cooley about questions and concerns, I continue to be extraordinarily impressed with his sincere concern for even my most minor concerns. I can't remember feeling this cared for by any doctor I have dealt with, and I unfortunately, I have dealt with more than my share of doctors. Carl

Thank you all for the kind words of support. It means a lot. latinlotus: Regarding your question about shaving, there was no debate with Dr. Cooley. I hesitate to try to fully explain what Dr. Cooley explained to me when I expressed the concerns of not shaving that I have read about on the forum for fear of not doing his explanation justice. In simplest terms, he said that shaving saves some time, but does absolutely nothing to impact the results. I know this is contradictory to what others have said. I can say that when I compared his full explanation as to why I would not be sacrificing any aspect of my final result and compared it with the concerns I read on the forum, I felt most comfortable with Dr. Cooley's reasoning. I understand it is possible for someone else hear the same two points of view and come to a different conclusion than I did. If I felt that shaving would have improved my result I would have done it. All things being equal, I preferred not to shave, but would have done it if there was some payoff other than the procedure taking more time. Dr. Cooley not requesting his patient shave was an extremely minor factor in choosing him to be my doctor. Carl

I've created a weblog with some before and after shots taken at Dr. Cooley's office the day of and day after the procedure. As I've read over and over, now comes the hard part, the waiting. I welcome any feedback on the pics, and would be happy to answer any questions regarding my great experience with Dr. Cooley, Ailene, Brandi, and the rest of his team. They truly went above and beyond all reasonable measures to make my procedure a success. By the way, this 4,686 graft session was done without shaving. Carl Carl

I miscalculated on total hairs. My breakdown was like this: 1 hair grafts - 1,122 = 1,122 hairs 2 hair grafts - 2,284 = 4,568 hairs 3 hair grafts - 956 = 2,868 hairs 4 hair grafts - 273 = 1,092 hairs 5 hair grafts - 51 = 255 hairs ----------- 9,905 total hairs

I've created a weblog with some before and after pics. Now the waiting begins. Carl

I've created a weblog with some before and after pics. Now the waiting begins. Carl

I found that price differences become more significant after you find out how each practice may be willing to save you money. Some will give discounts for cash rather than credit card payment. Some will give travel allowances. Some will give discounts if you take a short notice appointment to replace a cancellation. Some will give a combination of these, some only one, and some none. And of course the level of discounts for each of these reasons varies from practice to practice. With all of this, I completely agree with everyone else that price, logistical issues and other ancillary issues should only be tie breakers after you have narrowed down you list to a group of doctors who you are having trouble picking from. I am looking forward to my procedure with Dr. Cooley next week. I feel so comfortable about my choice in large part due to this great community. Carl

I am going for 4,000 to 4,500 grafts next week with Dr. Cooley in Charlotte, NC. He does not require shaving. It wasn't even brought up as a possibility until I asked to confirm it wasn't an issue for him. Carl

Thanks for all the support. This is all happening very fast because I am taking an appointment on very short notice due to a rare cancellation. Eman, thanks for the referral to the Spex HT list. Yesterday I spent a lot of time looking for a post like that before I found it. I went ahead and sent the list to Ailene at Dr. Cooley's office for her comments, and she endorsed most of the list. Any other input is very welcome. Carl

After much reading, a couple of in person consults, including Dr. Cooley, a few more phone consults, a bunch of conversations with patients, seeing first hand patient results, viewing a procedure, and asking a few questions in the forum, I am going for it. We are shooting for 4,500 grafts, but my laxity isn't great, so it may end up closer to 4,000. I have been doing the scalp stretches so maybe I will achieve the 4,500.

After much reading, a couple of in person consults, including Dr. Cooley, a few more phone consults, a bunch of conversations with patients, seeing first hand patient results, viewing a procedure, and asking a few questions in the forum, I am going for it. We are shooting for 4,500 grafts, but my laxity isn't great, so it may end up closer to 4,000. I have been doing the scalp stretches so maybe I will achieve the 4,500.