End of Day Three

[Guest]

 

Just to update, I had 1900 FU's done on Tuesday July 30 /02. It is now Thursday evening and I just thought that I would report on how things are going.

 

My transplant runs from the front of my head(hairline) to the back of my head (crown). I still have my own hair there, but it is getting thin.

 

I have developed increasingly more swelling now than I did on day one post-op. My forehead especially looks like a goose egg right in the middle. Also, my head is extremely itchy, almost unbearable. I want so badly to scratch it but I know I can't. My instructions are to wait 4 days before I can even apply water to my head and another few days after that, before I can shampoo gently. There is tightness on the top of my head and yeah, some occasional pain from both the doner and recipient areas, but it is the itching that is driving me nuts.

 

However, I went into this with a pretty good prior knowlege, so I am not surprised by any of it.

 

I must say that all things considered, the procedure went extremely well. If the stubble that I can feel now on my head is any representation of the volume of new growth that I can expect down the road, I am extremely happy.

 

Comments welcome.

 

Miker

[Guest]

 

Just to update, I had 1900 FU's done on Tuesday July 30 /02. It is now Thursday evening and I just thought that I would report on how things are going.

 

My transplant runs from the front of my head(hairline) to the back of my head (crown). I still have my own hair there, but it is getting thin.

 

I have developed increasingly more swelling now than I did on day one post-op. My forehead especially looks like a goose egg right in the middle. Also, my head is extremely itchy, almost unbearable. I want so badly to scratch it but I know I can't. My instructions are to wait 4 days before I can even apply water to my head and another few days after that, before I can shampoo gently. There is tightness on the top of my head and yeah, some occasional pain from both the doner and recipient areas, but it is the itching that is driving me nuts.

 

However, I went into this with a pretty good prior knowlege, so I am not surprised by any of it.

 

I must say that all things considered, the procedure went extremely well. If the stubble that I can feel now on my head is any representation of the volume of new growth that I can expect down the road, I am extremely happy.

 

Comments welcome.

 

Miker

[hrh]

Hi Friend,

 

Congrats and Goodluck with you HT,

I have few questions for you if you don't mind answering them.

 

I am in the same stage you are i.e not bald but extreamly thining all over my head and frontal,I don't want to be bald, I don't have lot of Money,and I live in Toronto.

 

Did you discuss about your excisting hair? I mean do they fall off from Head shock? what is it you have to keep the old hair? Did doc give you any payment options?how many days you took off from work? did he do the HT in between your excisting hair? do you need to shave off your head? I am thinking of HT for past one or 2 years and could not decide on it as it is very expensive for me, also I am trying out propecia and Rogaine but,as we know this is just to keep your excisting hair.

 

Any Ideas is very much appreciated and Goodluck..

 

Keep us posted

 

A Friend Need of Info

HRH

[Guest]

Hey:

 

Sorry I didn't get back on line to check postings earlier. After my holiday and getting back to work it seems as though I have been going non stop. Actually my hours are totally ridicullous

and I am insane for working them. But if had taken just a few minutes to log-on and check the forum I would have caught your note and responded earlier.

 

I am now one month post-op and feel really good.

 

I'll try to answer some of your questions, as follows:

 

The time I took off work to get this done was two weeks. I had the full two weeks to recover and I think I needed them. But two weeks was enough. (I had approx 1,950 FU's done)

 

My hair loss was very gradual over the past 5 to 10 years. I still had hair on top but was thinning at the front and crown. Still very thick on sides and back.

 

I had one mega-session and a lot of work was done on the top of my head from front to back. So I did loss some of my current hair due to shock. But I new the risk and it will grow back so what can I say? (I am wearing a hat for a couple of months) No big deal for me.

 

Dr. Jones does work in between your existing hair. I made a point of asking him this prior to surgery and he had no problem with it. I did not have to do anything special with my hair prior to treatment. Just come on in.

 

As far as payment is concerned, Dr. Jones was quite understanding in terms of my limited options and he did agree to a payment arrangement. That would be best discussed with him directly.

 

What I can say is that he is very good, highly recommended and very reasonable in terms of cost and payment arrangements. I saved a bundle and that is no exageration. If you are from the Toronto area, as I am, you should give him a call.

 

I really shopped around before I contacted him and I am now really happy that I did. If you do want to contact him he is one of the surgeons recommended on this site under Canadian surgeons. (Dr. Robert Jones - Oakville, Ont.)

 

Good luck

Miker

[darth.mel]

Hi Miker,

 

I've just had a HT with Dr. Jones in Oakville. Things are going well so far and I'm on my 9th day post op.

 

Got a couple of questions for you. How long did it take you to get all the crusts of your head?

The second is how is your rate of growth now that you're a few months down the road?

 

Mel

[DZ]

Miker and Darth Mel- I'm form TO myslef and have visited Jones a few months back. im prior to HTs and would love to talk to you guys about him and his new technique...

 

give me an email if you can at: d_zeev@hotmail.com

 

cheers lads,

 

DZ

[bmt07]

I've scheduled a session with Dr Jones for early Jan. after doing my research. He has been awesome about contacting me via email and phone and was very open and non-pressuring. I would love to hear from anyone about their experiences. I'm planning on going with the strip method (approx. 1800-2000) FUs. I didn't want to go with the FUE since it would take about 3-4 sessions to get the same coverage I could get with 1 strip procedure. I'm at about the 3-4 on the norwood scale but I have no vertex loss thankfully. Appreciate any info I could get from other past Jones patient (especially pictures). bmt07@attbi.com Thanks in advance.

 

Hey:

 

Sorry I didn't get back on line to check postings earlier. After my holiday and getting back to work it seems as though I have been going non stop. Actually my hours are totally ridicullous

and I am insane for working them. But if had taken just a few minutes to log-on and check the forum I would have caught your note and responded earlier.

 

I am now one month post-op and feel really good.

 

I'll try to answer some of your questions, as follows:

 

The time I took off work to get this done was two weeks. I had the full two weeks to recover and I think I needed them. But two weeks was enough. (I had approx 1,950 FU's done)

 

My hair loss was very gradual over the past 5 to 10 years. I still had hair on top but was thinning at the front and crown. Still very thick on sides and back.

 

I had one mega-session and a lot of work was done on the top of my head from front to back. So I did loss some of my current hair due to shock. But I new the risk and it will grow back so what can I say? (I am wearing a hat for a couple of months) No big deal for me.

 

Dr. Jones does work in between your existing hair. I made a point of asking him this prior to surgery and he had no problem with it. I did not have to do anything special with my hair prior to treatment. Just come on in.

 

As far as payment is concerned, Dr. Jones was quite understanding in terms of my limited options and he did agree to a payment arrangement. That would be best discussed with him directly.

 

What I can say is that he is very good, highly recommended and very reasonable in terms of cost and payment arrangements. I saved a bundle and that is no exageration. If you are from the Toronto area, as I am, you should give him a call.

 

I really shopped around before I contacted him and I am now really happy that I did. If you do want to contact him he is one of the surgeons recommended on this site under Canadian surgeons. (Dr. Robert Jones - Oakville, Ont.)

 

Good luck

Miker

[Guest]

Hey darth.mel.

 

I don't get on line enough. I just read your

posting and would like to respond. Better late than never!

 

I am now 4 months plus a few days post-op. All of the initial discomfort has passed and that includes, itching, swelling, scabs, and pimples.

(Pimples from ingrown hair after the proceedure).

 

The swelling disappeared first, then the itching, then the scabs and finally, just a few weeks ago the bumps or pimples, all have vanished and I now have some initial new hair growth.

 

My Dr. (Dr. Rob Jones) has predicted everything bang-on and I feel confident that I can trust what he says regarding what to expect.

 

He has also been very helpful in terms of getting back to me and answering any questions that I have had thus far.

 

This business of hair transplantation can be a frustrating one and he has been great in terms of his treatment, support and positive approach.

 

I also lost a lot of hair due to shock. I am looking for the 6 month mark before I can really even begin to judge substantial results. For me that comes at the beginning of February 2003.

 

But the new growth that I am now seeing is much appreciated. It's thin and sparse, but comming on steady.

 

It seems that the rate of growth, now at four months, seems to be picking up dramaticlly. I can see more of an improvement more frequently now and I think that is the way it is going to go. ei; 6 months, decent proof that it works and 1 year - expected full results.

 

Being super patient has been recommended. If I can maintain a whole lot of patience for the next eight months I really believe that this will all have been very worth while.

 

Hope that helps

 

Good Luck

Miker

[darth.mel]

Hi Miker,

 

Thanks for responding pal. I'm now about a month and a half post op and I wanted to share some stuff with you.

 

First thing I noticed about a month post op was that I suffered from severe shock loss. Such that my hair loss looked worse than before the HT procedure. I had some hair before - not much but I hoped to keep them all the same. I can only hope that these grow back. Basically both transplanted and existing hairs began to shed. Now the shedding has more or less stopped so I hope that my loss has bottomed out so to speak. The most interesting thing I noticed with the hairs that shed were that some of the transplanted hairs were bent at right angles!! It was almost as if they grew and then died.

 

I have noticed that if you look closely, there are some bumps - small craters are my best description in some parts of my scalp where the incisions were made. Again, I hope that these heal up too.

 

The scar at the back of my head is healing up and now I'm at the waiting stage. I do hope that my faith will be rewarded. I agree that this is probably the most difficult part and since I am not completely bald, its very difficult to tell if there is any actual growth. I plan to talk to Doctor Jones in a few days time since I've just got back from a 3 week vacation.

 

Still I think I'm at least a month away before I can expect anything but the waiting is killing me.

 

darth.mel

[Bill G]

Hi Miker. I am seriously considering Dr. Jones also in the next few months. Based on an "online consultation" and a phone call, Dr. Jones feels a 2000 FU procedure would give me reasonable coverage. I'm a Norwood 5A. I'd be interested in hearing more from your experience and perhaps trading email addresses. I've had two smaller procedures, 250 HT's each time, in the early 90's using micro and mini grafts. Considering the technology of the time, they did ok. So, any additional info ranging from how you're doing now, to how the actual day of surgery went, to how you came to select the good Dr. Jones over all others, would be great.

[Guest]

Greetings: You were inquiring about a few things.

 

My experience with surgery was not too bad at all.

 

I am now 5 months post-op. I had 1,950 FUs done and it took about 5 1/2 hours. Less pain than at the dentist's office. Really, not a big deal! surgical recovery for me went in stages, and all just as expected and explained to me by the Doc.

 

These are my experiences, it may vary from person to person obviously. Soreness was minimal. Swelling about 10 days, then gone. I was back to work in 2 weeks. I had some itching for about 5 or 6 weeks and some pimples on the scalp, off and on, for a couple of months (which I normally don't have). My doner scar has healed up extremely well. It took about 3 1/2 months. All of that is now in the past.

 

If any of it concerned me, I phoned the doc and he always took the time to get back to me. Not one of his nurses or techs, but he got back to me himself and told me what was going on with things like itching, pimples, shock-loss and etc, plus how long it would last and when to expect it to clear up. Each time he was pretty much bang on the money. The guy knows his stuff.

 

I now have new growth where I wanted. It is going to take another couple of months to get thicker and continue to fill in but I am confident that it will. I think you have to wait a good 6-7 months, post-op, before you can really see any good results and the best results are a year - plus. It is a situation you have to be extremely patient with. Results start off slow & gradual and then slowly continue to get better as the months go by.

 

As to your inquiries regarding "why Dr. Jones?" (Dr. J),. When I was shopping around for a HT surgeon, this guy delt with me one to one. First on-line, then over the phone, then in person

during my first consultation. He showed genuine concern for my particular situation (hair loss and it's effect on my well being) and he was willing to work out a financial agreement that we both could live with.

 

Nobody else provided me with that kind of genuine consideration.

 

He got the job and he hasn't let me down since.

 

My only advise is - don't wait too long. From transplant to substantial full growth, its takes some time.

 

Good Luck

 

Miker

[Guest]

Hang in there man! You are probably going through one of the most difficult phases now.

 

I can relate to some of the stuff happening to you.

 

I lost a ton of my existing hair due to shock

loss too. Doc said it will grow back in about 6 months. He was right. I am at 5 months and it has pretty much all grown back in. Plus it is continuing to grow in more as we approach 6 months.

 

Any physical stuff like lumps, bumps, sores, redness or itching, in my case, all cleared up after about 3 1/2 months and that includes the doner incision. Plus you feel better each month that passes.

 

Ya, I definately can see new growth from the transplated hair. It is comming in very slow, kinda thin and weak - BUT - that is the way it comes in at first. Fortunatly for me, there is a guy I know who lives close by who has been all through the process. All of this stuff is to be expected. So while I am happy to see growth, I will be happier when it gets thicker, fuller and longer. It will. So will yours

 

Take care and Good Luckl

 

Miker

[uncjim]

Hi Miker,

Thanks for your post. I'm just shy of 7 weeks post op and it is welcoming to hear such positive news. I have a question for you. I have also had some small pimples (ingrown hairs). As I have previously posted, the ones that look somewhat inflammed I've dealt with using Bactroban ointment and it has workded like a charm. A couple of others just appear as hard and crusted bumps. Those I haven't been able to do anything with. Did your bumps that were similar to this just clear up on their own or did you actually do something? Thanks.

Jim

[uncjim]

Of course, if anyone else can help me on this rather basic question, please feel free. Thanks.

[uncjim]

THANKS JO.