Hair transplant donor pain (3 days to 2 weeks post op)

[mrshikadance]

Hi all, 

I've seen a few posts in forum about people experiencing donor pain (most often a burning sensation) a few days post surgery, often lasting a week or two (I've seen a few posts about this lasting months to years). Has anyone been able to find a good remedy to this problem?

From scanning the web/youtube it feels like this isn't all that uncommon but there's very little surfaced about this topic. I saw Melvin created a yt video about this and recommended massage and a few other tips, but am curious if folks have tried other things (meds- NSAIDs, benzodiazepines, topical lidocaine).

I had a great hair restoration done a few years ago and experienced the same issue and am very reticent about undergoing a second procedure given the previous pain but would love to another procedure if I could figure out pain management. 

[gillenator]

Most of the post-op pain is related to severed nerves and alleviating that pain is limited to the use of ice and some of the meds that you mentioned…so it really comes down to the trade off of living with a little pain in exchange of loving more hair!

[pkipling]

I experienced this as well for a few weeks post-op, and while I tried different things to calm the area (ointments, ice, ibuprofen, etc.) nothing seemed to really be extremely effective unfortunately - though they did help soothe the area and make it slightly more tolerable. The ointment helped soothe the surface level of my scalp, and the ice would numb it a bit to provide some relief - but as Gillenator mentioned, since much of this type of pain is nerve-related, for me the only thing I could really do was wait it out.

[WhereIsMyMind]

Im 18 day post op and still have trouble sleeping on my donor, despite having healed super fast and no signs of irritation anywhere. I think nerves are at play and every person is different.

[gillenator]

Everyone does respond a little differently and we also need to remember that the outer layer of scalp tissue heals much quicker than the inner layer where the nerves exist.

[StillAlive]

Be patient, after about a month these should have all gone away. Part of the cost of doing business.