My upcoming surgery with Eugenix of India and Dr. Arika Bansal

[kirkland]

4 hours ago, BoldnotBald said:

great to see your courage to have taken the plunge.

and it looks as if you´ve already mastered the first challenges - i suppose as a sort of warm up before the upcoming ones. 😉

 

in terms of asking questions it would be good to know how / on which ground / based on which calculation eugenix will be able to predict

1. how many grafts would be needed to cover your bald area

I meet with Dr. Bansal this morning and will ask her this question.

2. how many grafts can be extracted in total

Same as above.

a. from your scalp

Same as above.

b. from your beard

Same as above.

3. which tools / formulae they use and which and how many trichoscopic measurements they would take pre-op from which areas

I depart the hotel for surgery at 8 am. Expected to meet Dr. Bansal. Last night's pre-ops meeting was about taking blood samples, meeting with some of the team (including Anil and Maudit), going over consent forms, discussing payment methods and just chatting in general.

I was there at the clinic around 7:30 pm and there were lots of staff members working. I didn't see inside one of the operating theatres (they have 4 plus a spare). I took some pics of the outside of the building, inside the general lobby. Today, I will take some pics of the operating theatre itself.

 

[BoldnotBald]

8 hours ago, kirkland said:

 

thanks for shedding some more light, kirkland.

there is another question in terms of the surgery itself:

when it comes to the statistics of your extracted grafts (i.e. how many 1, 2 and so on) and being written down on a wallboard (see also the pic on page 2 from the ht journey of our hero mazab) it would be interesting to know what "f", "p1" and "p2" stand for.

[Gatsby]

Thanks for the update @kirkland. When I travel overseas I always buy a SIM card at the airport, so I appreciate knowing that I need to have active WIFI when I arrive. You're in great hands mate and I look forward to your next update (most likely post op at this stage). All the best and many thanks for sharing!

[kirkland]

16 hours ago, BoldnotBald said:

thanks for shedding some more light, kirkland.

there is another question in terms of the surgery itself:

when it comes to the statistics of your extracted grafts (i.e. how many 1, 2 and so on) and being written down on a wallboard (see also the pic on page 2 from the ht journey of our hero mazab) it would be interesting to know what "f", "p1" and "p2" stand for.

I will ask today for you.

[kirkland]

Sorry for not posting about yesterdays surgery. It was over a 12 hour day at the clinic and an early start this morning. Here's some pics form day one. Really nice tight work.

[kirkland]

That's about 3000 grafts. Dr. Bansal did the slits last night for today's session. The stamina and detailed work of the technicians is impressive. 'Delhi-work' is how one tech described the long hours in the operating theatre.

I also want to make mention that it takes a team to get the results. Dr.Bansal is an absolute gem but Anil, Maudit, Ramen and other team members are really to be commended for their hard work.

[Britanium]

Just beautiful work 👍🏽

[MazAB]

What a beautiful day one! Are they going to fully cover the crown between scalp and beard?

[Zoomster]

Looks great 👍 

[kirkland]

Day 2 is over. Just over 3500 grafts in total. Looks tight and clean. They did an amazing job. Really spent a lot of time refining the hairline. Intense 2 days though. Glad to have it over and get onto the growing stage (or at least the ugly duckling stage). The team there is fantastic. If anybody has seen the recent promotional material of Eugenix with Dr. Sethi and Mohammad Azharuddin, the former cricket captain of the Indian national team, well he was at the clinic today. Nice guy, wry sense of humour. Dr. Sethi looked starstruck - he was so pleased. But I think it speaks to how well established and renowned Eugenix has become in its own country. Of course, it is gaining traction as one of the top clinics in the worlds now but it really does attract star Indian talent which is good to see.

[kirkland]

Sorry I haven't taken a pic of donor area yet. Back at hotel and resting since it was an intense two days but I will post later. Really looks great.

[Britanium]

Impeccable work 👍🏽

[kirkland]

8 hours ago, MazAB said:

What a beautiful day one! Are they going to fully cover the crown between scalp and beard?

I didn't need to use any beard hair at all. 3500 grafts all from donor area. Crown is not really touched. I will try to get pics later today. I asked them to leave the crown for now since hairloss in that region is minimal plus it doesn't bother me to have a thinning crown. I'm sure I will get hair greed, though, so still have lots of hair left for a second surgery.

[kirkland]

5 hours ago, Zoomster said:

Looks great 👍 

My god, @Zoomster- how did you bear your first surgery? I know you had even more grafts extracted than I did and my two days were intense. Tough to be in boths side positions for that long. I can now appreciate what you went through.

 

[Zoomster]

9 minutes ago, kirkland said:

My god, @Zoomster- how did you bear your first surgery? I know you had even more grafts extracted than I did and my two days were intense. Tough to be in boths side positions for that long. I can now appreciate what you went through.

 

Hey @kirkland..I just kept my eye on the prize 😊...well done ✅ 

[kirkland]

12 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

Impeccable work 👍🏽

It really is good work. I know that a lot of people focus on the various packages that Eugenix used to offer - the ones where, if you pay more, you have one or both doctors more involved in the surgery. When I put my down payment for surgery with Eugenix two years ago (before the pandemic and lockdowns), I chose the package with Dr. Bansal. But in reality, most of the work is done by the techs. Dr. Bansal designed the hairline, evaluated the donor region, made the slits and did some initial extractions but most of the real grunt work is done by the team which surrounds the doctors. The extractions, the placements are all from their hard work. 

The slits are important and that's why Dr. Bansal (and Dr. Sethi) are hands-on at this crucial step. They use a needle which looks much like an implanter needle. It creates the direction for the hair placement so Dr. Bansal is creating the foundation for how the grafts are ultimately placed by the technicians. The needle creates the opening just big enough for the graft to be placed at the right angle but not give it any room to move around once in place. Dr. Bansal also did the first few extractions so that she could observe the quality of the grafts, the ease by which they can be removed, etc. And, of course, she does the final inspection at the end of the surgery. But full credit goes to the technicians who work long, exhausting hours.

[kirkland]

4 minutes ago, Zoomster said:

Hey @kirkland..I just kept my eye on the prize 😊...well done ✅ 

That's all I kept thinking about during the entire time -"It's going to be all worth it!"

[rob7331]

You did it kirkland! Congratulations my friend. Take some much deserved rest and let the healing process begin you're about to embark on a fantastic journey. Great job again, safe flight home!

[kirkland]

Thanks @rob7331I know you are here next month so I hope that consider the following:

- have some rupees on hand when you arrive or you can exchange at the airport. If you haven't provided the clinic with all of the blood tests before arriving, you have to pay a clinician to come to Eugenix and do the rest of the tests. About 2000 rupees. Plus you will need a negative PCR test to fly back to Canada. Eugenix will arrange. I was told the cost was about 1000 rupees.

- bring a comfortable neck pillow to sleep on for first two to three days. Bring something to wrap around the pillow so that you don't get blood on it during the sleep. There will still be a little bleeding after the surgery, particularly when you lay your end down at night.

- no need for converter. The hotel has plugs which will take N American devices. 

- My phone did work at airport but wifi requires that an SMS verification code be sent to phone and that didn't work. There is a kiosk located just prior to the exit doors after baggage pickup. They can give you a wifi password to use if you are communicating with your Eugenix rep via WhatsApp

- Because the existing Eugenix clinic is undergoing renovation as they are building a larger building behind it, you won't be staying at the clinic for sleep. They put you up at a local Double Tree Hilton which is about 1 km away. Drivers take you back and forth so no need to walk yourself. 

- Eugenix covers the cost of two night's stay at the Hilton. If you are there longer, you pay the rest but Eugenix has a corporate rate with the hotel so make sure that either someone from Eugenix contacts the hotel to extend that rate to you, or go ask Boomi at the front desk of hotel. He can arrange for extending the corporate rate. 

- Hotel has complimentary breakfast buffet. Definitely eat a good breakfast each day of surgery since you have to take a few pills prior to surgery and the breakfast keeps the stomach strong with the meds

- Make sure that you have the area being worked fully anesthetized.  That's an uncomfortable process as they run a needle over a large area to numb the area having surgery. After they apply the anasthesia, have them poke the whole area to see if they missed a spot. That happened to me a couple of times. When they went to extract or implant in an area not fully numbed, it really hurts. The point is to have no pain at all in the area so make sure you communicate with the techs.

- at the tail end of my day two surgery, I believe that the number of grafts extracted fell short by the number of slits created by Dr. Bansal. Suddenly, it seemed the techs were rushed to extract the right of grafts and so they had to numb the areas again. The one tech, who didn't do the anesthesia before, was now applying it and missed some spots so when another tech when to extract the grafts with the motorized punch, it was coring into a part of the scalp that was not numbed. I had to stop the surgery and make sure that the entire area was prepared properly before commencing because it hurt like hell! Still hurts in that region of the scalp.

- you can bring a couple of smaller bottles to transfer the saline solution in for the return flight. You need to keep the recipient area sprayed every other hour through the day for 7 days. But Dr. Bansal can write a medical note exempting the airline from withholding a large bottle of liquid if it is used for medical purposes. She is giving me a note tomorrow or Thursday so we will see if it gets it past the security checkpoints at the airport.

Let me know if you have ?'s

 

[MazAB]

@kirkland your detailed write is the perfect template for any one that commits to Eugenix and emabarkes on their journey. I'm so happy for you, along with many other valuable members of this community who got their procedures done with Eugenix. Can't wait to see how things progress in the months ahead!

[kirkland]

Thanks so much @MazAB 

This forum helped me so much in my search for the right hair restoration clinic and I want to give back as much as possible. 

[Westview]

Just a FYI for anyone going to India, you cannot take Rupees out of the country when you leave:

https://inshorts.com/en/news/foreigners-cant-take-indian-rupee-outside-india-1465135392014

 

[kirkland]

16 minutes ago, Westview said:

Just a FYI for anyone going to India, you cannot take Rupees out of the country when you leave:

https://inshorts.com/en/news/foreigners-cant-take-indian-rupee-outside-india-1465135392014

 

That's good to know. Thanks for this. At Eugenix, everything is pretty much covered that you don't need cash except for paying directly for blood tests and a PCR test at Eugenix. These are third-party provided services that Eugenix provides but you have to pay them directly. They only take cash (rupees). The additional blood tests cost was $32 CDN (about 2000 rupees) and the PCR test is supposedly only 1000 rupees. I will know more today since I have to return to the clinic for a check-up and to have the PCR test so that I can submit for my return trip to UK and Canada. Unless anyone plans to spend money outside of the hotel compound or the Eugenix compound, you really need minimal amount of rupees on you. $50 CDN or US is more than enough. Everything at the hotel (Eugenix puts you up at the nearby DoubleTree Hilton since their in-house rooms at the clinic are not currently available due to renovations) can be paid by Visa. The hotel has complimentary buffet breakfast and you can either order room service for dinner or eat in their dining facilities. During the days of surgery, Eugenix provides meals. And might I suggest the Butter Tofu Masala? It is absolutely orgasmic. I haven't had good Indian food for decades so having this dish in such a long time was worth it!

[Westview]

11 hours ago, kirkland said:

That's good to know. Thanks for this. At Eugenix, everything is pretty much covered that you don't need cash except for paying directly for blood tests and a PCR test at Eugenix. These are third-party provided services that Eugenix provides but you have to pay them directly. They only take cash (rupees). The additional blood tests cost was $32 CDN (about 2000 rupees) and the PCR test is supposedly only 1000 rupees. I will know more today since I have to return to the clinic for a check-up and to have the PCR test so that I can submit for my return trip to UK and Canada. Unless anyone plans to spend money outside of the hotel compound or the Eugenix compound, you really need minimal amount of rupees on you. $50 CDN or US is more than enough. Everything at the hotel (Eugenix puts you up at the nearby DoubleTree Hilton since their in-house rooms at the clinic are not currently available due to renovations) can be paid by Visa. The hotel has complimentary buffet breakfast and you can either order room service for dinner or eat in their dining facilities. During the days of surgery, Eugenix provides meals. And might I suggest the Butter Tofu Masala? It is absolutely orgasmic. I haven't had good Indian food for decades so having this dish in such a long time was worth it!

Butter chicken is good too.  I also like Satay in peanut sauce.

I'm surprised you didnt go sightseeing, but I guess Covid restrictions probably played a part

[kirkland]

Sightseeing is tough for a few reasons: first, the clinic is located in Gurgaon and there really isn't much to see in the immediate area. Lots of industrial park space. There are local streets, of course, with tons of shops but nothing I haven't really experienced before; second, since I had 3500 grafts, I don't want to expose the area to the surrounding pollution and there is a lot of it here (this was also recommended to avoid by the Eugenix team); third, I have a ton of work that I am fitting in around my visit to the clinic.

My original plan a couple of years back was to spend about a week in Chandigarh because I love Le Corbusier architecture/design but those plans were scuttled with the pandemic. The trip got shortened to the clinic visit only. It's too bad that I didn't have more time here in India. It really is an incredible country with great food, beautiful sites and wonderful people. I am sure to have hair greed once I see my current results so I will try to create a better travel itinerary the next time I come to visit Eugenix.