Shock-loss and some drainage -- Is this normal?

[dogbert]

Well, I finally did it. I had 2300 grafts put in by Dr. Vogel on July 25th. Still very nervous and will be happy once everything heals. All my scabs and crusting are gone -- not much redness on top, I was expecting more.

 

Questions:

 

1) I started to have a little serous drainage ( Day 7 ) coming from the donor area incision. It is not much but does put a spot or two on my pillow when sleeping. It seems to happen after the area becomes moist -- either by putting on bacitracin or after taking a shower. Once the area is dry, it does not drain anymore. The incision looks great and there is no swelling and/or pus. Is this normal??

 

2) I have some shock-loss mostly in the donor area. I am seeing about 7-8 hairs fall out each time when showering so far -- BUMMER!! Is this normal? Is 7-8 hairs a lot?

 

The only surprise was that Dr. Vogel shaved the top of my head when doing the HT which bummed me out. I was trying to hold on to what I had. It seems more common for docs to shave the recipient area.

[Dr. Timothy Carman]

dogbert-

Welcome to the HTN-

1) A little oozing from the donor site can be normal, this can be more obvious as you rub in bacitracin ointment which may loosen some scabbing.

2) When you consider that we normally lose about 100 hairs/day, that 7-8 from the donor area is within normal limits- not to worry-

 

Grow well!

 

Sincerely,

[dogbert]

Dr. Carman,

 

Thanks for the reply. This makes me feel better.

[badger_01]

dogbert,

don't worry about the shockloss..i saw alot more falling out in the first 10 days and now at 2 months, its not that visible..besides..it will grow back.

There are alot of threads about shaving vs not shaving. I had my recepient area shaved, and it looked pretty decent in a month (you can check my blog for pics). With a little dermmatch and toppik I was able to ditch that hat at about 5 weeks.