1,700 Grafts with Dr. Fisher Yesterday

[Fleetwood271]

Good Morning Everyone.

I was in Nashville yesterday having a HT procedure performed by Dr. Fisher. If you have not read my previous post about my meeting with Bosley and then my meeting with Dr. Fisher, you can read it here:

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=5196

UPDATE:
I arrived at Dr. Fisher's office at 7:30 sharp. By 8:00 I had read, reviewed, and signed the consent for surgery forms, picked out some movies to watch, had my pre-op pictures taken, and had gotten into one of those "oh so sexy" hospital gowns.

I will have to say that I believe Dr. Fisher's office is the most efficiently ran Dr's office I've ever been in. It was the same way when I went for my consultation. Hardly any wait time.

So, right at 8:00 they give me a Valium to help me relax, and then Dr. Fisher and one assistant start prepping the donor area. He checks to see how elastic my scalp is, marks off the area, and pins my hair up out of the way. He then had me move over to a stool and we once again discussed the area we were going to work on today. If you read my previous post, you'll see why we are only doing the top at this point.

After that, I moved over into the chair where I sat for the next 6hrs. First thing is to numb the donor area. Dr Fisher uses a really cool device as he injects the scalp. He places some type of "vibrator" against your head, and then as it is vibrating, he gently eases the needle in. So, for anyone who is nervous about getting a shot in your head to deaden the donor area, if you go to Dr. Fisher, don't worry. You'll barely even feel it. As he was doing it he asked, "...on a scale of 1 to 10 how painful is this?" I kinda laughed and said, "maybe a 1." Seriously, the vibrations help to block the feeling of the needle. He said it was kinda like when you hit your finger with a hammer and you immediately shake it. You know how that seems to help the pain go away? Same thing here.
When he was finished, he said “The worst part is over.” This was great news, because to me, it hadn’t been bad at all. If it was all downhill from here, I had it made.

After I was numb, they began removing the strip, as I watched TV. Probably took 30 to 45 minutes to remove strip and stitch me up. I really don't know, since I fell asleep.
Could only have a piece of dry toast and clear liquids that morning, so that Valium hit me pretty quick.

The strip was removed and passed off to his techs to begin separating the follicle units. During this time, he was closing the donor area. When he finished, they started my first movie. After about 15 minutes or so, one the techs brought in the first of several containers of follicles.

Dr. Fisher returned and he and his nurse began doing the actual transplants. Dr. Fisher placed all follicles himself, which made me feel much better, than if some tech had been doing it. I had already learned from many sources that Bosley’s doctors only remove the strip and then they are gone. All follicles are put in place by the techs, while the doctor is off in another room removing another strip from another patient. Kinda sounds like Bosley's procedures are like a production line.

So, for the next four to five hours, I sat there watching movies, while they worked on placing 1,700 grafts into the top of my head. The worst part of the entire day, as far as pain, or being uncomfortable, was my neck hurting from keeping it is the same position for that long. We stopped a few times, so I could stretch my neck.

Here is a picture that I took this morning. Keep in mind, I just had this done yesterday, and my head has been in on of those blue, stretchy hospital caps every since he finished, until, I pulled it off to take this picture. It has not been washed, or touched in any way.



As you can see, this is not a large area, but I was more concerned about the top of my head, than with the front. My receding hairline does not bother me as much as being bald on top. And as for leaving the bald spot on the back of my head, you can read about that in my previous post (the link is above).

At my initial meeting with Dr. Fisher, he said I’d need to come back to his office the day after my procedure. However, when he finished yesterday, he said my procedure went so well that he did not see any reason for me to come back this morning. He simply told me to try to keep the cap from sticking to the graphs.

He had given me three prescriptions on the day of our first consultation, and asked my to getthem filled before the day of my procedure. So I took one of each as soon as I got in my car to drive home. I’m only about 75 minutes from his office.

If anyone has questions, please let me know and I’ll be happy to try to answer them.