POST OP FUE PAIN

[AnimaI]

8th Day in and passed few nights I’m experiencing some crazy pain in my donor area.

The way I can best describe it as pins and needles sticking me or someone constantly poking me. Especially when I lay down to go to bed at night I feel it the most since I’m putting pressure on the donor area.

is this normal and how long does this last?

[Britanium]

 Could you share a pic? 

Edited October 15, 2020 by JohnAC71

[deitel130]

Are you on pain meds? After surgery there is usually some pain which is easily managed using doctor prescribed meds.

[AnimaI]

5 hours ago, deitel130 said:

Are you on pain meds? After surgery there is usually some pain which is easily managed using doctor prescribed meds.

Yea but after a week there all gone.

Just trying to see whether this is common and how long it last for.

[sl]

This usually kicks in a week after surgery if one suffers from it and can last a week and as you say is worse at night. This is occipital nerve pain and you can take pain medication for Neuralgia, apply cold aloe vera, massage etc and it will pass. Vit B tablets also help to heal nerves.  This is common and I had it once personally badly in 2006 and no-body knew what it was so I researched and got informed and it is indeed in the post op document that we give people.

 

Trust me it will pass and I have had it and dealt with many patients who had it and all of them had it pass exactly as I said. I don't post now but seeing you were in pain I wanted to chime in! 

Here is a quote from the document we provide as standard

 "Some may experience pain in the donor a week after surgery and pain killers, vitamin b tablets and applying cold aloe vera to the donor area will help relieve this. "

 

Relax and do as above and you will heal okay! 

[AnimaI]

2 hours ago, sl said:

This usually kicks in a week after surgery if one suffers from it and can last a week and as you say is worse at night. This is occipital nerve pain and you can take pain medication for Neuralgia, apply cold aloe vera, massage etc and it will pass. Vit B tablets also help to heal nerves.  This is common and I had it once personally badly in 2006 and no-body knew what it was so I researched and got informed and it is indeed in the post op document that we give people.

 

Trust me it will pass and I have had it and dealt with many patients who had it and all of them had it pass exactly as I said. I don't post now but seeing you were in pain I wanted to chime in! 

Here is a quote from the document we provide as standard

 "Some may experience pain in the donor a week after surgery and pain killers, vitamin b tablets and applying cold aloe vera to the donor area will help relieve this. "

 

Relax and do as above and you will heal okay! 

The response I was looking for. 

Thank You

i have been applying cold aloe Vera (plant) to my donor area.

At times I almost feel after applying it that my head has a buzzing feel to it. The other night was some wild shit, I had no idea what was going on.

[jimcraig152]

I am closing in in my 3rd month post FUE recovery. So the pain is still fresh in my mind. When it comes to pain, best to keep it at bay with meds than trying to make it subside after onset. I know this from having dental work done in the past and injuries. As for how long it lasts, here is/was my experience:

My surgeon gave me about a week's supply of pain meds and a prescription if I needed more. I didn't take the pain meds during the first week and dealt with the discomfort from FUE for the first week. During the 2nd week, the discomfort was moving towards crossing the threshold into the onset of pain. I jumped on the meds and kept it at bay. By the 3rd week, there was some serious discomfort and I ran out of pain meds but it did not cross into pain. Felt like being too close to a campfire that I couldn't move back and away from. I did lose some sleep from this. There were serious bouts of itching during this week however. By the 4th week, the discomfort was displaced by a feeling of numbness and the occasional piercing shard of intense pain. Felt like a worm burrowing under parts of my scalp. By the fifth week, my entire scalp was numb upon touch. Seems the recipient area had more atypical sensation than donor area. Shards of pain became less frequent but started to be felt in areas not touched by the surgery. After the 5th week, pain/discomfort/numbness was still prevalent to some degree, but didn't bother me any longer. Interestingly enough though, I watched a horror movie during this time. And during a shocking scene, I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck. What a jolt that was. It was also during the 5th week that I started to use the aloe vera gel 98% stuff. The first few times I applied it, I could feel stimulation of the touch nerves washing out the ringing of/from the pain nerves and it felt so good. During the 2nd month, the value of the aloe vera became less and less as I was healing rapidly. I still apply it everyday anyway. Now close to 3 months, I would say I am about 80% normal in scalp sensation. That remaining 20% is due to bouts of non-intense but persistent itching and shards no longer of pain, but striking brief bouts of discomfort. I've read others say that at 5 months, everything is back to 100%, though I am not there yet.

Out of curiosity, what did your donor look like immediately after surgery?

 

[AnimaI]

On 10/21/2020 at 6:18 AM, jimcraig152 said:

I am closing in in my 3rd month post FUE recovery. So the pain is still fresh in my mind. When it comes to pain, best to keep it at bay with meds than trying to make it subside after onset. I know this from having dental work done in the past and injuries. As for how long it lasts, here is/was my experience:

My surgeon gave me about a week's supply of pain meds and a prescription if I needed more. I didn't take the pain meds during the first week and dealt with the discomfort from FUE for the first week. During the 2nd week, the discomfort was moving towards crossing the threshold into the onset of pain. I jumped on the meds and kept it at bay. By the 3rd week, there was some serious discomfort and I ran out of pain meds but it did not cross into pain. Felt like being too close to a campfire that I couldn't move back and away from. I did lose some sleep from this. There were serious bouts of itching during this week however. By the 4th week, the discomfort was displaced by a feeling of numbness and the occasional piercing shard of intense pain. Felt like a worm burrowing under parts of my scalp. By the fifth week, my entire scalp was numb upon touch. Seems the recipient area had more atypical sensation than donor area. Shards of pain became less frequent but started to be felt in areas not touched by the surgery. After the 5th week, pain/discomfort/numbness was still prevalent to some degree, but didn't bother me any longer. Interestingly enough though, I watched a horror movie during this time. And during a shocking scene, I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck. What a jolt that was. It was also during the 5th week that I started to use the aloe vera gel 98% stuff. The first few times I applied it, I could feel stimulation of the touch nerves washing out the ringing of/from the pain nerves and it felt so good. During the 2nd month, the value of the aloe vera became less and less as I was healing rapidly. I still apply it everyday anyway. Now close to 3 months, I would say I am about 80% normal in scalp sensation. That remaining 20% is due to bouts of non-intense but persistent itching and shards no longer of pain, but striking brief bouts of discomfort. I've read others say that at 5 months, everything is back to 100%, though I am not there yet.

Out of curiosity, what did your donor look like immediately after surgery?

 

My donor looked great. I didn’t have any concerns in regards to the pain until the 4 or 5th day in my donor area. I started to get concerned because my donor looked too normal for me to be in the pain that I was in. Thats when I was aware that this was neuralgia that I was experiencing.

Some of the worst sleepless nights of my life. I thought my head was going to fall off. It lasted for a long week and a half. 
 

i still have mild symptoms but nowhere near as before. Even though the pain started to wear off I started taking B Complex yesterday just to make sure this doesn’t come back. 
 

Pain was so bad I’m not even sure if I would want to do another surgery if needed down the road. One member on here had it by it a few years. I couldn’t imagine going through life waking up everyday like that.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

Prolonged pain from FUE transplantation is rare. when it occurs it generally only lasts a week or 2 but as you said in some severe cases can last up to a year. I have heard that some patients who had this condition thought that massaging the scalp regularly did help speed up the recovery.

[Forty Six & 2]

I had the same problem, crazy pain in the donor area, especially at night. It happened to me day 6 to day 11 post-OP. On the first 5 days i had almost no pain anywhere and my donor area looked super clean, the operation was hardly to detect. My doctor said it was the healing of the nerves and gave the same advice as SL, Vitamin B and Aloe Vera.

[HannahSmith]

Feelings are not to be feared at all. They limit themselves. The greatest joy and the sharpest pain never last, and depression can last a lifetime. If feelings are normal, we get distracted, tired, or changed by some new event. We are like a buoy on the water: the waves can knock us over, but the inner balance, the balancer, will eventually bring us back to a stable position. We have to trust that we can ride the waves. Expressing repressed feelings, if it is appropriate, can relieve depressed moods. A good cry, a healthy argument, fair advocacy, and a caring exploration of hidden feelings can all help you feel better. A good remedy is these bona fide drops.

Edited July 10, 2021 by HannahSmith