Two failed FUTs, then FUE, then back to FUT for up and coming HT #4.... Why oh why???

[jessie1]

Hi Guys,

 

This is an unusual one and I think we could put this down to pre op nerves with an FUT HAIRLINE REPAIR procedure looming..... I just can't stop thinking about my past mistakes at the hands of this industry.

 

 

Ok, here's the deal...... I've had 2 previous unsuccessful strip procedures in 2007 and 2009..... Then in 2010 I underwent 1000 graft FUE to my hairline with Dr Feller which also didn't work out.

 

 

I've had consultations this year with reputable clinics during which I was asked why I decided to change from FUT to FUE given that I already had an existing strip scar..... Furthermore, a strip scar that could have benefited from a repair being that it was wider than the norm thanks to shoddy workmanship in the UK.

 

 

My next procedure is FUT and the Doc plans to repair and use the same scar to harvest grafts: ie two birds with one stone.

 

 

Again, a combination of poor research and poor advice lead me to believe that I would inherit an additional strip scar if I went for FUT again so thats what ultimately lead me down the FUE path for my last HT with Dr Feller.

 

 

I could kick myself. Why did I go with FUE when I could have gone with FUT last time around and had my existing scar repaired whilst surely giving myself a better yield prospect, especially when we were relying on FUE grafts in a heavily scarred recipient area????

 

 

I mean, we all know the uncertainties of FUE which Spex was keen to point out after my last procedure, especially when grafting into existing scar tissue.

 

 

Has anybody been in or heard of a similar situation to mine?

 

 

Will my donor be at a disadvantage for my forthcoming FUT?

 

 

 

Any reassurance would be great.....

 

Cheers,

 

 

Jessie

 

 

1000 FUE Dr Feller Sept 2010

 

2 UK strips 2007 and 2009

[Montreal]

damm Feller is supost to be one of the top Dr in HT and he failled.I guess alot of patient with top doc's get horible results but we just don't here about them.Thanks for coming out,because I guess most of the people with bad results don't even talk about it has there life is pretty much ruined.

[Sean]

Jessie1, don't let the preop nerves get to you. I think you should think positive about this upcoming procedure. Looks like you will get FUT again. I am sure it will come out well.

 

How many grafts are you getting?

 

Are you doing the laxity exercises? I think you should be good to go with your donor area. But wish you the best.

 

Also, did you get my reply regarding the post op swelling? I sent you a message, I know there were some issues with posting/messages so I wanted to make sure you got it.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Sean

[RodG]

Hi Jessie,

 

I hope that your next HT surgery goes well for you. I guess the only thing that I can say to you is that we all have to do research and to be fully informed. Were you aware that you had a wider than normal scar in your donor area prior to your recent fue surgery?

 

We all need to remember that surgeons make their money by performing surgeries and not just doing consults.

 

Good luck

 

Regards rod

[orlhair1]

Hi Jessie,

 

I am sure you will be fine. Very natural to be nervous and especially given your history. I have seen some stories of scar repair combined with FUT that came out great. Look forward to seeing your progress.

[jessie1]

Cheers for the kind words guys.

 

Definitely worried about my donor area given the FUE for my last op.

 

Would be great to hear from anybody who has reverted back to FUT after FUE.

 

Well I have heard of 'third time lucky' but for me this will hopefully be 'forth time lucky'.........

 

The last year has been awful and I would be lying if I said my confidence wasn't shattered to pieces but the back stage messages of support over the past 3 or 4 months especially have been inspiring

 

........But to keep us on thread would still like to invite comments regarding FUE to FUT

 

Thanks guys,

 

Jessie

 

1000 FUE Dr Feller 2010

2 UK FUTs

[jessie1]

Sean,

 

Graft count not confirmed as yet. I will let you all know once it's fully decided.

 

Regarding your private message re swelling, got it mate. You are very thorough and meticulous Sean.

 

Thanks for the effort, appreciated.

 

Jessie

[Capelli11]

Jessie1: Who is your doctor for your next HT?!

[jessie1]

Capelli,

 

I will reveal my Doc in a few weeks, after my surgery.

 

Never intended to be annoying about this, thats why this thread is centred around advice. Plus, my character came under attack on this forum in another thread and I'm keen not to bring that negativity into my next procedure.

 

Hope that clears things up.

 

I just want a fair crack of the whip in other words guys and to sort my hairline out once and for all.

 

Cheers for the ongoing support: Seriously need it!!!!!

 

Jessie

 

1000 FUE Dr Feller Sept 2010

 

2 UK strips 2007 and 2009

[Stuart01]

Jessie,

 

From my understanding of your situation there are two big concerns that a doctor has to deal with in your situation; scar tissue in the recipient area and a larger than normal scar in the donor area. I understand that you are thinking of undergoing an addition procedure with the strip method to try and improve on your results with your thinking that everything is going to work out. The problem you need to understand is that you have had one of the mosted skilled docotrs in Dr. Feller perform your last procedure and you received very poor yield from that procedure. The reason for the poor yield most likely is that you could have so much scar tissue in that area that there is not enough good blood supply for the grafts to grow and that is what contributed to the poor yield, just something for you to think about. The other big concern is the scar in the donor area, which can be corrected by a scar revision, depending on the elasticity of the scalp. It is alway good to do some massaging exersices for a good month prior to an addition procedure in the donor area to loosen up the scalp. You might be better off not getting to aggressive with another procedure and just have a scar revision and what ever grafts that they get from the scar revision have them us in your recipient area as some test grafts and see if they grow in the scar tissue. It would be a shame to have an other big surgery and have poor yield again and even deplete your donor area more. My best suggestion is to make sure that your next doctor has done multiple cases similar to your situation, because doing corrective work is not an easy task.

Edited October 28, 2011 by Stuart01

[jessie1]

Stuart,

 

That is excellent advice and you have tapped into all of my concerns just there.

 

I am extremely concerned to the point of brickin it for want of a better term. There are no certainties here and theres nobody more aware of that than me at this present time.

 

The advice I received from Spex when I saw him to discuss my poor result was to hit my hairline and zone behind with a 2000-2500 FUT . There is definitely some disparity between your cautious advice and his. I have opted for less than this because I have factored in these concerns for my next op.

 

This is where it's essential that your surgeon stands by you and fully assesses any unfavourable outcomes instead of leaving you in the cold with massive question marks..

 

I have had no choice but to figure it all out by my jack jones but that's done with now and I need to think positive thoughts whilst staying grounded and being extra cautious

 

Jessie

[RodG]

Hi Jessie,

 

I've read your story and it seems like you've been thru the ringer with your HT surgeries. I think stuart has given you some good advice and probably some good questions that you can ask your new surgeon.

 

Do you have any photos that you can show? The other thing I'd like to say to you is that I was in far worse shape than you at 21 years of age and I ended up having a good career and got married and had 3 great children. Don't less these issues put a dampened on your life because we are only here for a short time. Sorry that I'm lecturing you.

 

Regards rod

[jessie1]

Rod,

 

Your comments are sincere and well received.

 

I always take constructive advice inboard, it's all part of the learning and support process.

 

I have always been clear to point out that my situation is by no means unique or extremely unfortunate, I have simply had a had experience with the industry.

Afterall I'm a NW2 for gods sake!

 

Rod, I suppose all my thoughts going into HT 4 are exacerbated by the doubt I have been left in after my Feller experience. When you get doc and patient advocate with different views on the result and left on your jack jones it's hard to forget.

 

Anyway, sure I have photos and I will post a final experience with Feller Medical but i am concentrating on the future now and this is not what this thread is about.

 

Hey it's just reassurance I'm after at the end of the day with an extra helping of support. I respect that I'm not on everybody's Xmas card list but I make no apologies for expressing myself, what's the point of this forum if you can't (within the terms of use of course)

 

Jessie

[Stuart01]

Jessie,

 

I had been in the hair transplant industry for over 25 years and have been helping individual such as yourself with hair loss for over 25 years. I have seen this industry go through many changes over the years, from the old plugs to the state of the art procedures today of transplanting one hair at time. This is a very specialized field where any doctor can understand how to a transplant, but it much more than that, there is actually an art to doing the procedure to give the patient the best result possible.

 

I was very intrigued by your post and decided to do a little more research since you did not post any results of your pictures and ran across an old post of yours and happen to find some pictures of you that were posted by Dr. Feller

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/161233-9-5-months-pics-1000-fue-dr-feller-not-good-so-far-4.html

 

Originally from reading this post I thought that you did not get much growth from your procdure by Dr. Feller, but after viewing your post-op pictures I was much suprised to actually see how nice your hair looked 9 months post-op.

I can't tell you that 100% of the grafts grew in or your hair looks like you never loss any hair, but there was a considerable difference from your before pictures. Most pateints I would have to say would be happy with the results you received. I am thinking that your expectation were way to high. I do not know what you were thinking as far as the results you were going to get, but from a non bias opinion and going by the post-op pictures that I saw you actually receive a very nice result for the 1000 FUE's Dr. Feller performed on you. Prior to your surgery with Dr. Feller your transplants were very noticable and 9 months post they were not very detectable. I am not sure how long ago your procedure was done, but there is also the possibiltiy that you have lost more of your own native hair. If you are still planning on having an additional procedure you really need to explain to your surgeon what your expectations are because hair transplants are a great alternative for someone losing there hair but sometimes individuals expectations are set to high.

Edited October 29, 2011 by Stuart01

[JayWalker]

Really feel for you there, hard not to have doubts after your past experiences.

Just goes to show, no matter how good your doctor is, there are no guarantees for anyone in this game.

Hope all goes well for you, keep us posted.

[jessie1]

Cheers guys,

 

I will let you know how things go in 3 or 4 weeks.

 

Really appreciate the constructive advice. Thanks for going to the length of researching the pics too Stuart.

 

Regards,

 

Jessie

[bonkerstonker]

I feel for you jessie you really need this to work out so don't jump into it.

 

With respect to fue then strip i did that but i didn't start with strip then go fue then strip because quite simply it's pointless to have fue when you already have a scar so gutted for you that you didn't know that and i'm shocked that nobody told you when you consulted after your 2 strip surgeries.

 

In you recipient area are we saying that you just have standard small scars from your strip surgeries or is it a lot worse than the average pre worked on recipient area?

[jessie1]

Thanks for the private messages guys, appreciated. Difficult putting it into words how much....

 

RodG touched on this earlier and Bonkers has too: advice.

 

I will be the first to admit that my research over the last few years has been lacking. Do I accept responsibility for this? Yes. I don't sherk responsibility and if I make a boo boo I'm always the type to put my hands up and say so.

 

But where do we draw the line guys? When research takes the form of one to one consultation advice from respected figures in the industry, consultants and coalition Docs alike, how much blame can be attributed to the patient when things go clearly wrong or entirely the wrong approach is taken?

 

So 2 FUTs and then a small FUE case with Dr Feller. Now another inevitable HT around the corner with a different Doc and back to FUT where everybody tells me I should have stayed all along

 

I'm still intrigued to hear from anybody else that's been directed down the same route? This would reassure me greatly. Really concerned about the suitability of my donor.

 

Bonkers, cheers for sharing your experience and kind words mate

 

Jessie

[aaron1234]

Jessie,

 

Wish you nothing but the best my friend. It's totally normal to get nervous. I was totally nervous before the last procedure and it was my third strip session - second with Dr. Paul. There was no need to be nervous but I was (though the Prednisone might have contributed a bit to that).

 

I can't wait to see the pics from your procedure and also can't wait to see who does the work! I'm sort of with Stuart on this one regarding your expectations. Maybe your last one wasn't a home run but it wasn't a failure either. Just make sure to keep your expectations in check so you don't set yourself up for disappointment this time around.

 

Wish you nothing but the best.

[jessie1]

Aaron,

 

Cheers mate, you always dish out great support and advice and are a big contibutor on this forum.

 

As I say, the result and overall experience with Spex and Feller Medical is for another time and is not the basis of this thread which is more concerned with the possible impact that my previous poor choices may have on my forthcoming HT ie. FUT to FUE to FUT! Oh, and a bit of reassurance just for good measure!

 

Cheers Aaron,

 

Jess

[aaron1234]

Right on Jessie. As long as you are going to a doc/clinic you completely trust this time then I think you are making the right decision to improve your hair situation. I'm a big believer in taking action and you are doing that. I'm also a big believer in positive thinking so do your best to be optimistic. :cool:

[hairthere]

Stuart, I agree that the pictures posted of Jessie show good yield indeed, and it puzzles me that so many members on this thread have glossed over that fact. It also should assuage Jessie's fears that another procedure by a top doctor would not yield good results.

 

Jessie, I'm a bit confused. You say that you were given poor advice regarding your last procedure, but according to Dr. Feller:

 

"My original recommendation to Jessie 18 months ago was to perform a strip megasession, but he rejected it because he already had two strip procedures elsewhere that didn't work for him. So he wanted to try FUE, which of course requires more procedures to achieve a result on par with any strip surgery. He understood this and had the procedure, all he has to do now is do a second one as is sometimes necessitated by continued genetic hair loss and he would be happy. Or at least happier."

 

So are you saying Dr. Feller is lying?

[orlhair1]

I wish you the best in your next procedure. I also agree that you got good results or what you had done with Dr. Feller and that your expectations may not have been realistic for the size procedure that you had. It seems that Dr. Feller actually recommended FUT but you chose FUE. Jessie, you need to be realistic in your expectations as Stuart and others have said here.

[bonkerstonker]

I wish you the best in your next procedure. I also agree that you got good results or what you had done with Dr. Feller and that your expectations may not have been realistic for the size procedure that you had. It seems that Dr. Feller actually recommended FUT but you chose FUE. Jessie, you need to be realistic in your expectations as Stuart and others have said here.

 

 

I also thought from what has been said before that Feller recommended fut but jessie chose the fue path which has always been the thing that really boggled me as once you have a scar it's kind of pointless using fue until you've run out of strip. Anyway Jessie you live and learn i suppose forwards and onwards!

[jessie1]

Hairthere,

 

I can see why you are puzzled.

 

If you read my post in response to Dr Feller's statement above re him allegedly trying to persuade me to go for FUT all along, then it would have saved you all the unnecessary confusion.

 

My response to Dr Feller's false claim was pretty much confirmed to be false by Spex ironically.

 

Look at the direct quote from Spex:

 

"Spoke to the Doc and he is happy to see you for a session and recommends approx 1000+ session via FUE"

 

So am I calling Dr Feller a liar?

 

Does this still warrant an answer.....? If so perhaps Spex can help you out given that what you see above is a direct quote from an email Spex sent me confirming what Dr Feller recommend after our face to face consult (which was videod by Spex).

 

Hairthere, I respectffully urge you not to turn this into a trial as it will end up getting closed and could be intrepreted as 'another closed Feller thread' which does nobody any favours.

 

Hope this clears things up.

 

Jessie