OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

1 Week post HT The first week has passed and most of my newly placed soldiers appear to holding their position, a great improvement over the "French Army" style retreat of my hairline during the past 15 years.Sleeping: I continue to sleep at a 45-degree angle, now of my own volition.  Sleeping at this angle takes some pressure off the staples, which are sore under the pressure of my head, and allows me to avoid direct pressure or rubbing on the recipient area.  Tonight I am considering sleeping as usual as my research indicates the grafts are fairly well in place.Pain: Only a dull ache in the suture area.  No pain medications required at all.Swelling: Gone.  I never had much to begin with.Numbness: Transplanted area still has dramatically reduced sensation.  For whatever reason this does not concern me.Redness: The redness has faded (see photos below). This has been replaced by...Scabs: The recipient area now has a number of small scabs encapsulating the shafts of the hair.  These have been present for some time and create a "minefield" like appearance.  I have not yet soaked or massaged the recipient area due to concerns of disturbing the grafts.  I may start soaking and massaging the recipient area tomorrow.

OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

5 days post HT The redness has tempered somewhat, leaving behind the hairs and what appears to be quite a few fine scabs encapsulating the base of the hair shafts.On close examination in the mirror, I struggle to envision the transplanted hair as an adequately dense covering (I think I have fine hair, but am not sure).  Time will tell and I trust Dr. Bernstein knew what he was doing when he spread the grafts over a wide area.The majority of the donor area staples can be well concealed by combing down my hair in the usual style.  The exception area is the sides, where my hair is extremely thin.  Nevertheless, most friends noticed the staples only after I mentioned their presence.

OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

3 Day post HT Everything continues to get easier; or at least I'm getting more accustomed to the routine of sleeping at a 45-degree angle, taking frequent showers, and taking extra caution when moving around.Symptoms update: Sleeping: Last night was fine.  Still somewhat uncomfortable to rest the stapled donor area against the pillow, but is quite bearable.  I try to place most head-to-pillow pressure in the ridge above the staple line and below the hairline.Pain: Only a dull ache in the suture area.  No pain medications required at all.Swelling: Very mild just below the hairline.  Neither noticeable to others nor uncomfortable to me. I continue to take Prednisone, a corticosteroid prescribed by Dr BernsteinNumbness: Transplanted area has dramatically reduced sensation, though my only contact with the area is when I pour water over it during GraftCyte cleansing.Redness: The main issue at this stage.  It's only been three days, but am hoping for it to subside substantially by day 10 when I plan to resume visiting with clients, etc, and otherwise return to a fully normal routine.

OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

2 days prior to first HT self taken Photos taken in my bathroom two days prior to the operation.

OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

1 Day post HT Procedure: The overall operation was fine.  Basic steps wereDraw the hairline (this took two minutes, a couple of tries and erases)Administer Valium and Cortisone shotsNumb the donor and recipient area with NovocaineExcise the donor strip (now I see why they used the valium...pretty sure the cut the edges and then tore out by hand)Created the recipient sites for the graftsFive people then started dissecting the stripInsertion of grafts into recipient sites.  This took *forever* (about 5 hours) with three people performing the insertions (one behind, one at each side)In all honesty, the least pleasant part of the procedure was the boredom during the graft insertion.  I watched four movies and became pretty restless in the chair.  Not a huge amount of pain; sometimes I could peel pinching as they inserted the grafts, at which point I simply asked for more novocaine.Sleeping: last night was not so bad.  They instructed me to sleep at a 45-degree angle for the first three nights. I stacked a few pillows in the corner of my bed (corner of the wall, too) and lay backwards.  The nighttime dose of Valium surely helped.Morning after: The morning after I woke up, ate breakfast, took my anti-swelling pills, and then removed the bandages.  See photos below.  It looks pretty nasty and is rather numb in the recipient sites.  I took a shower, allowing direct flow of water onto the donor areas to clean out the "gunk" (likely Bacitracin) from the surgery.  This did not hurt.  I also dabbed GraftCyte shampoo onto the recipient sites with a soft surgical sponge; it did not hurt but I was paranoid about disturbing the grafts.  I rinsed by pouring water from a cup over the recipient area.Pain: I have a dull ache from the donor area (staples).  That's about it.  I took one Vicodin last night, but none so far today.  I am able to work from home. So far, so good. Quick note on movie selection: The first movie I selected was "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." In general, I advise against watching movies with the word "porno" in it during the operation.  The funny scenes induced audible laughter from the "dissection" crews (hope it didn't lead to ruined grafts), and the sex scenes were as awkward as watching a sex scene with your parents at age 14.

OrioleFan

Bald class: 5A

Procedure 1

2 days post HT Day 2 updatePain: Not bad.  Only medication I took was Valium to help me go to sleep; I woke up early in the morning (~4am) with aches in the donor area and took a Vicodin.  Otherwise, I have not needed the Vicodin at all. Sleeping: Slept last night just fine (other than the wake-up), at the 45-degree angle.  No issues.Appearance: Still very red; hard for me to distinguish much of a difference from the first day post-op.Grooming: I still use the GraftCyte shampoo on the donor site and the transplanted area.On the transplanted area, I place a dollop of shampoo onto the surgical sponge and then squeeze it onto the surface, and then lightly dab the areas I know have some scabs/oozing.  I rinse by pouring water from a cup.On the donor area, I apply the shampoo directly with my fingers; no pain.  I let the shower spray directly onto the staples to ensure cleanliness.  Afterward I apply Bacitracin, per Dr Bernstein's instructions.