still numb

[attak]

Hello everyone, im on day 7 since my 1760 fut ht. my recipient area and donor area are still relatively numb. this is especially true for my recipient area. is this common and if so how long does it generally take before i get sensation back in my recipient area? thanks in advance.

[Dutch]

Hello, that's definitely normal. Very early days. I'm 6 months post op & I still have numbness & itching. It can take a year for the full sensation to come back.

The nerves will take a long time to re-connect & heal fully. Be patient & don't be concerned.

 

Congrats & happy growing!

[attak]

thx alot for the advice dutch, much appreciated. another question i have is that im at the point now wear i will be able to start rubbing the recipient area to get the crusts off.... ive looked at the recipient area quite extensively and i dont see many crust just mostly small grafts and tine hairs, and i dont want to scrub off the grafts if there are no crusts to get off!!

[Levrais]

Attak, Dutch is correct, it took months and months for normal sensation to fully return for me. You will get used to it though,

[attak]

ok great. any advice on not rubbing the recipient area if there arent any crusts to remove?

[Dutch]

No problem at all. If there are no crusts, then don't rub. If you do rub, do it gently with your fingers by doing circular movement when you have shampoo on your scalp.

Then afterwards cover the area with vitamin e oil. This will make the area soft & the crusts will fall off. Don't use your nails to scratch!

[attak]

ok great, does baby oil have a similar effect? thx again for all the great advice. its nice to have this forum for information like this rather than bothering my doctor on his cell phone over this long weekend.

[Dutch]

Baby oil is more runny. Vitamin e oil is thicker & will sort of stick better & not run so much. So it won't bother you as much I guess

[attak]

great i will head out and get some asap. thx again.

[Levrais]

So which clinic did you go with? How was the experience?

[attak]

I went with Dr.Simmons out of Toronto. I must say that so far it has been a great experience. Dr.Simmons and his staff were very professional and helpful from start to finish. everything was very well organized and went smoothly.

 

I origionally had some concerns that my ht was done too conservatively. I still feel like i would have liked my hairline lowered slightly more but im not nearly as concerned as i was a few days ago. I believe that the swelling in my head made it look alot worse than it actually was for a couple of days post op.

 

So far the healing appears to be going quite well. Im one week post op and havent experienced any noticeable shedding yet. I had 1760 grafts done to my hairline, and because i do still have a desent head of hair most of the recipient area is covered up by my existing hair.

 

Im 29.5 years old now and have been slowly losing my hair since i was about 16. It has been a slow gradual process aided by the fact that i had an extremely thick head of hair as a teenager. I swear every time i would go to get a haircut the barber would call all the other barbers over to see how thick my hair was..... lol the good old days.

 

Anyways losing it at such a young age was very hard, especially because i was too embarassed to seek any advice from family members or my doctor. This is also the reason that i never started taking any meds until recently. All i was aware of previous to my consultation with dr.simmons was rogaine which i believed was only for the crown area.

 

i am now taking finasteride daily and once things settle down from the ht i will begin taking rogaine aswell.

 

I recommend dr.simmons too anyone seeking an ht. Im still in the early stages of my experience but i know dr. simmons is very highly regarded by this forum. While consulting with dr.simmons i also got the impression that everything he recommended for me was what he felt was in my best interest and not what was best for his business.

 

I hope this helps out anyone considering an ht with Dr.Simmons and look forward to any feedback.

[Levrais]

I think at your age, it was wise not to go too aggressive. If your loss stabilizes you could always go for a second op later if you wanted to. However, with that number of grafts to the hairline, you're probably going to be quite happy when it grows out.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Levrais
typo

[attak]

i think and hope your right levrais, thanks for the advice

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

Attak

I know its been said already, but I'm 3 months post op, almost, and I still have a good deal of numbness. I know it's totally normal. Like the others have stated, could take up to a year.

[baldguy1973]

I'm at 3 1/2 months and the back of my head is still pretty numb. From what I remember when I had my first surgery it took a good 6 months for most of the numbness to go away.

[AdamAJ]

guess everyone is different...my head was never numb for the most part