2700+ grafts by Dr. Dorin after consultation with Dr. True

[cuuler]

*Update* I was researching the three doctors in my area for months before I decided to take the big leap with Dr. True and Dorin. You could see my posts regarding this here:

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/179422-dr-pawlinga-any-experiences-him.html

 

Anyway, I decided to document my progress with my HT journey to share with anyone that's considering it for the first time and to get wisened tips and advice from the experienced veterans that are on this site. Hopefully this could be of some help to everyone.

 

I decided to go with Dr. Dorin because even though I had my initial consultation with Dr. True, he wouldn't be available for a while, and was told by both him and Peter (who helped me with the paperwork) that Dr. Dorin is an excellent doctor and on par with Dr. True.

 

I live in NJ and my appointment time was for 8am in NYC, so I got up early at around 5am in the morning to shower, have breakfast, and take my antibiotics as per their instruction. I got there about 45 minutes early and was greeted by one of the technicians who, I discovered, happened to live close to my neighborhood which was a pleasant surprise. She was very sweet.

 

After I paid my balance for 3000 grafts and signed some paperwork, I was led into the main operating room and changed for the procedure. All the technicians and staff were super nice and very pleasant.

 

Initially, after Dr. Dorin made the strip I thought I heard him tell his technicians 3000+ and was very happy about it, but he later told me that we could only do around 2700+ grafts and that I would need to come in for another session which was a bit of a downer for me due to both budget reasons and time.

 

Afterwards, I went through the FUT procedure which most of you are already familiar with along with lunch (I had a chicken salad sandwich).

 

One thing to note was that I was extremely tired and a bit disoriented afterwards, but it helped after I got some good night's sleep when I got home. Another thing that was a bit tricky at first was sleeping with my head elevated as instructed. I also sprayed my scalp with the ATP solution every hour which they told me would help with the healing process .

 

Pain isn't too bad yet, but the back of head is still very numb from the procedure.

 

I have to go back tomorrow morning for cleaning and post-op, but in the meantime this is what my head looks like right now (I'd like to know what you think):

Edited June 12, 2015 by cuuler

[Pete-from-Farjo]

cuuler,

 

Congrats on your ht. 2700 grafts should give you a really nice improvement. Hard to tell much from those pics though unfortunately.

 

Hopefully the clinic can provide you with some clearer pics for you to add.

[cuuler]

*Panic*

 

This morning, I accidentally bumped my head against the side of a door when I dropped my phone and I reached down to pick it up! It was a reflex reaction if anything but...ARGHHH!

 

I'd been so careful with everything up to this point, following post-op instructions down to the letter and this happens ugh..

 

There was some bleeding, but I'm really hoping that I didn't lose any of my precious grafts

Edited June 13, 2015 by cuuler

[mav23100gunther]

Owch, that's very unlucky that you bumped your head like that. Hope it's not a lot of grafts. Just curious if Dr Dorin had pre-laxity exercises in the pre-op instructions? I suspect if that was omitted then that's the reason he may not have been able to get the 3,000 grafts. Not knocking True & Dorin, but 3,000 grafts isn't too difficult to get in this day and age and unless you had really bad scalp laxity (which I assume Dr Dorin would had evaluated in your in-person consultation), it should be unacceptable that Dr Dorin couldn't get the number of grafts he estimated and charged you for. One of the few cons i noted for this clinic when I consuted with them was that they don't do larger megassessions and require you to come back for multiple sessions to meet your expectations. Honestly, if I were you I would be slightly pissed at the low graft count. If you were going for 5,000 grafts and they only got 4,700 - then no harm no foul, but when we are dealing with 3,000 grafts for a virgin FUT, then I think it's pure sloppiness.

[mav23100gunther]

Just read your other thread

 

"I went in for a consultation with Dr. True (NYC) recently and, after a careful look at my head, he told me that I'm actually a NW5V with probably around 7000 - 8000 total donors. He suggested we shoot for 3000 grafts and try to cover the vertex as well."

 

With such a high donor supply, I think it is completely unacceptable that Dr Dorin, a coalition & recommended surgeon, could not have gotten the 3,000 grafts. If you had weak scalp laxity then he should have recommended a couple of months of performing scalp laxititivity exercises. Based on the timing of your posts, doesn't look like he even had much of a waitlist. I'm very sorry I missed your initial thread, because I would have highly recommended you consider traveling for your procedure, and would have recommended Konior, Shapiro, Rahal, or Hasson. All of those can get 3,000 + grafts in one single session with ease. I know Dr. Dorin is a solid surgeon, and I was impressed with some of his results, but he is not one of the top HT surgeons and this should show why there is a difference between the top surgeons and the tier 2 ones.

[cuuler]

No, he didn't tell me anything about pre-laxity exercises before the procedure.

 

He mentioned using some type of solution to help with laxity during the procedure though (can't remember the exact name, but starts with H something).

 

During my initial consultation, I do remember Dr. True saying that my laxity was good though (he wrote this down in my evaluation).

 

I definitely was disappointed when Dr. Dorin said he could only get 2700+ out of the sitting, but this being my first HT and despite having done the best I could to try to gather as much info as I can beforehand, I wasn't aware of a lot of the things you mentioned.

 

There were moments during the procedure when I was a bit confused like when Dr. True initially told me about the 7000 - 8000 total donors (during our consultation) which I thought was plenty, then one of the technicians actually making a comment about how I have great density (on the day of the procedure), then what I thought I heard Dr. Dorin tell one of the techs that there's 3000+ donors (after the strip), all of which eventually got knocked down to 2700+ grafts ultimately, but I just figured he's a coalition doctor and knew what he was doing and let it go at that.

 

When I asked Peter (rep at Dr. Dorin's office) the reason why we can't go over 3000 during the first session, he told me that it's to get the best yield. Also, taking into account what Dr. Feller wanted to do (2000 for the first session to cover the front half of my scalp, then coming back for a second session for the crown), and what Dr. Pawlinga recommended (around 2000 - 2300 for the first session w DFU's in the central core), I concluded that 2500 - 3000 that Dr. True stated he could do was the best that was possible for me. Both Dr. Feller and Dr. True/Dorin were reputable coalition doctors from what I understand according these forums and I believed what they said.

 

If what you're saying is true though, I AM pretty disappointed and wonder why these doctors wouldn't meet my initial request to get as many grafts as possible (3000+) for my first sitting.

 

When I had my consultation with them, all three doctors said they don't want to take too much during the first session because they want to leave donors for later down the line when my hair loss progresses further.

 

What does this all mean..? I'm confused even more now and I don't know who to believe

 

Really appreciate your reply btw

Edited June 13, 2015 by cuuler

[mav23100gunther]

Don't worry too much buddy. The good news is that Dr Dorin is a highly regarded and solid surgeon. You don't see Many only complaints of him, and he is definitely one of the best in New York. I made a similar error to you when I selected my surgeon as I wanted to be close to his surgery for the after care. That ended up being unnecessary. I only got a limited amount of grafts, and now have to plan for a. 2nd to get additional density. It's not a train smash, but it's annoying and hurts the wallet. I believe Dorin charges $5.5/6 a graft and it doesn't decrease after the first couple of thousand grafts. The top surgeons like Hasson charge $5 a graft for the 1st 2,000 grafts, and then it decreases to $3 a graft. If you travel to Feriduni in Belgium, it's even cheaper. Bottom line is that Dorin is way to expensive, and doesn't cater towards the mega-sessions. I don't take any exception to him taking a conservative approach and preferring multiple sessions to larger single megassessions. (There are many pros to this approach). I just find it inexcusable that a top surgeon like Dorin under-delivered so much in his instance. How is it even possible for him not to recommend you perform scalp laxity exercises before the procedure. If he did, and u did the exercises, there is no doubt he could have gotten the 3,000 grafts. You have every reason to be angry and upset. Did Dorin refund you for the 300 grafts he couldn't get?

 

Unfortunately, for me, all the surgeons I consulted with estimated my total grafts at around 6,000 which is average. However, you luckily have a lot more to work with, so I think you should be able to get sufficient coverage over your lifetime.

 

As I said, not a massive train smash, and you now have a year to do a lot more research for your 2nd procedure. If you are worried about financial burden, then perhaps consider going with someone in Turkey or Belgium. Feriduni is one of the best, although he has a 9 month waiting list, so try get on that list now. If you prefer to stay in the U.S. Consider Ron Shapiro, Rahal, Hasson, or Konior. I really apologize for not seeing your 1st posts otherwise I would have advised you to expand your consultations.

[cuuler]

Thanks so much for sharing. Seriously.

 

I just did a quick search on scalp laxity exercises and it seems like pretty common practice for hair transplant procedures. I really don't know why Dr. True nor Dr. Dorin didn't mention anything about this.

 

Especially after having made it very clear to both Dr. True and Dr. Dorin several times that I wanted to get as much as possible out of my first (virgin) sitting, and if we came short, not due to lack of donors, but due to not having been given proper (and routine) pre-op instructions that could have helped achieve the intended result, then yeah I'm definitely upset.

 

I understand that Dr. Dorin is highly regarded, but when doctors do things like this (whether intentionally or not), it really brings me down and makes me wonder how involved the physician really was with my case in the first place. A doctor could have a great reputation, but if his head isn't in your case, all that reputation doesn't mean squat to the patient. At the end of the day, it becomes a trust thing.

 

I'm hopng there was some valid explanation why they didn't tell me about the laxity exercises. I will ask them.

 

He did refund me for the grafts he didn't get, but I would've much preferred to have gotten 3000+ instead of course, considering all the time, money, and energy I poured into researching and finally deciding to take the leap to go ahead with the procedure.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned before everyone at the office were nice and the procedure itself seemed to go pretty smoothly, so I'm really hoping that I will be happy with the result in the end even though i didn't get the 3000 grafts as expected.

Edited June 14, 2015 by cuuler

[cuuler]

cuuler,

 

Congrats on your ht. 2700 grafts should give you a really nice improvement. Hard to tell much from those pics though unfortunately.

 

Hopefully the clinic can provide you with some clearer pics for you to add.

Sure! They said they will send me the pics on Monday so I will post them as soon as I get them

Edited June 14, 2015 by cuuler

[mav23100gunther]

Hey buddy,

 

Any status update from Dr.Dorin? Interested to know if he commented on why he excluded scalp laxity exercises from the pre-op instructions. Perhaps Peter can chime in?