Irish Dr Feller Patient

[Shayshay1]

Just before I turned 42 I had about 2,300 grafts on top of my
head. These were inserted August 27th by Dr Feller. Thats where
I am today, my hairloss history probably starts about 25 years ago in
school. I remember guys at school noticing my hair was fine and that
my scalp was visible when my hair was wet. It’s not quite that it
bothered me greatly, more that I was aware of it, what I did know was that if I could keep my hair; I would do what I could to do so. My hair was
always brushed backwards and stood up so it gave me a little extra
height, at best I am 5 foot 7 inches tall.
Around the age of 30 I noticed the hairloss starting. When my first son was born, and there were pictures taken of me looking down at the new arrival, a visible line accross the top of the skull was appearing. This was not really noticable to me most of the time as the hair as the front of the
hairline was thick enough to hide it. Fast forward a few years, the
hair is slowly getting thinner, we are lucky enough to have two sons
now. My wife decides a family of four is nice round number and there will be no more additions. Propecia ( I'd think carefully before taking this product, consult your doctor) is available, not a threat to my wife or future kids so I start taking it and it works...for the time being...there is a slight development
of moobs which is one of the potential side effects.
Around 2010 I have not lost much more hair, but it is still fine on the top. In the summer I go to a clinic in Dublin where the Irish actor James Nesbitt had his done. They tell I need 2500 grafts. High definition pictures shock me about how much hair I have lost. However the cost would be €25,000 and I
ultimately decide its not worth it and would put too much pressure on
our families finances. It was also not that easy or not easy enough to
find examples of the clinics work. In spring 2011 I did contact Spex
but did not really pursue looking into a transplant, to be honest I
was probably confused and did not know what I wanted.
My mind was made up however as that summer my hairloss suddenly increased, not sure if this was related to switching to a generic version of propecia that was cheaper and sourced from Spain. It was time to change what I was doing or get the buzz cut. There was a gap appearing in the hairline above both eyes. I dont like this new look and now it is bothering me.
I contacted Spex again last sping. He advises such products as Rogaine foam 5%, Saw Palmetto and Nizoral shampoo. I started using these and recovered some of the hair I had lost.
Spex sends pictures of me to Dr Feller who suggests about 2300
grafts. The cost is much more afforadable, about $10,500. Luckily a
work savings scheme matures and I have funds for the $2,500 deposit
that are not needed for family matters. Within a couple of weeks of making
contact with Spex again and after checking out Dr Feller's work, that
March I book a date with Feller Medical for August 27th and book
flights that same week.
I have found Spex an amazing help. At times I was surpised that he was
so patient and so helpfull in answering all my emails and questions,
never making you feel like you were asking stupid questions and
probably responding to questions he had answered thousands of times.
If I am honest I went with Dr Feller, not so much because of all the
positive things on the web about his work but because it occured to me
that Spex, given his growing profile, would only align himself to one of the
very best surgeons.
Fast forward to August 27th. I stayed in the Adria Hotel the night
before and am booked in for the night after the procedure. I went for a less expensive hotel and treated myself to hiring a Chevy Camaro ( what midlife crisis?) hire car .
The Adria is fine, a little small, the room was clean, had good wifi
and a lot of movie channels. Breakfast does not start till 7 so I
missed this as I did not want to be late for Dr Feller. There are however many restaurants very close and a Dunkin Donuts and Burger King / Wendys accross the road.
Dr Feller himself exceeded the tales of making you feel at ease and
being very witty. He made me feel like I had known him for years and
we chatted for about 15 mins about his hobby of flying. He is a very
likeable person and just enspires confidence. After 5 mins in his
company I was sure that I had made a very good choice and was in good
hands. He told me has been doing this for 15 years and I was really
surprised by how personable he was.
I guess the procedure started about 9am. Dr Feller talks you through
each part. He gave me some meds to relax me and started with shots to
numb the donor area, the first few shots I could feel a bit, slightly
more so when he worked on the left, however, as the area became numb I
would feel less of the shots. He told me some guys dont like the shots
but said I did pretty good, in general I dont llike needles but knew
it had to done so didnt mind them too much. After a while I feel
shivery and cold, the doc tells me why this is but now I forget what
he said, they give me a blanket. What I didnt mention to him was I
seemed to find it a little harder to hear. Soon, while I was aware he was
soon taking a donor strip I couldnt feel anything. The top of my head
was buzz cut and then shaved. Then there were shots into the
transplant area. Again I could feel the first few but they were ok.
What happened next I didnt expect...I started falling asleep. He
encouraged me to sleep saying 80% of guys do for a while. I'd guess I
slept for most of the time while he worked on the area to receive the
grafts as his team prepared them. I woke up when he was finished
and his team then took over and started implanting the grafts. There
were two teams of 3 ladies. 1 on either side and 1 at the back keeping
the transplant area wet. The girls work in silence and seem very
focussed, I cant feel a thing up top but am aware of where they are
working.During the procedure Dr Feller shows what is happening to
someone who I assume is having a consultation, I dont see his face. I
did however get to meet a nice English guy who had 2 transplants
already, he tells he had lost all his hair on top, what he has now
looks really good.I did regret not getting a coffee before we started
as I feel I need one and my neck is kinda killing me...this happens to me when I change cars e.g. getting a hire car on hols, and I should have remembered this.
Its all finished about 2-3pm. They gave me lunch ( you order this
around noon from a deli menu ) and a coffee which I was really glad
to get. One of Dr Feller's ladies explains to me what to do for the
next few days, washing the donor area as normal but only using a cup
on the new hairs for 2-3 days, very important to keep clean but dont
touch at all. Then Dr Feller tells me is very happy with how things
went, shows me pics of my new hair and answers any questions I have.
While I feel good for some reason I'm a little out of it. I could
drive back to New Jersey in the mid life crisis mobile where I am staying with relatives but am glad I am just going back to the hotel in a taxi with a larger baseball cap that the doc gave me. I brought one but its not large enough. The head feels numb but not sore at all. To be extra cautious I sleep in a chair that night.
If you remember I said the Adria is small, not fancy, but now I am glad of its good wifi and close proximity to food outlets and Dunkin Donuts which I walked over to, I guess I'm back in
the hotel about 4.30. I didnt sleep really well but it was ok, could
be the chair, the doc gave me painkillers in case I need them but I
only take one the next day. There is no pain, more an awareness of the
65 staples in the donor area. The second night I wake up as I feel the
top of my head touch a pillow, it felt like there are very strong
stalks in my head, luckily no grafts are lost. Over 3 days, this is
the only time the grafts touch anything. The HT was done a Monday, I
get home to Ireland Saturday.
While you probably need 3 weeks off work if you dont want people to know you had a HT, I only took a week as I didnt want to impact our family summer hols. Before I go back to work to work I get my remaining hair cut down more, I have prepositioned a hairdresser who has had guys with HT's before and we have a plan for the next few months, the hair on the sides growing much quicker so we need to keep these trim. Tuesday I go back to work, my boss is very supportive. Up to now I had only told my wife and him about the HT. He has no problem with me wearing a baseball cap but points out it might look odd with a suit and tie. As it happens we are too busy at work for me to worry about what people think so as I think I need to I explain to people that I had a HT. I feel I need to do this due to the visible
line at the donor area, the top of the head now just looks like a buzz cut.
My wife took out the staples after 12 days, these were a bit itchy. The redness and flakyness in the new area went in the second week. The grafts awere still there at 3 weeks but growing really slowly, if at all. The new hairs will probably fall away as happens in 80-90% of cases, that should start in week +4.
For the first few weeks I was kinda concious of the donor area strip. My wife and I did a test on Toppik fibres and these do conceal the gap nicely, I am however giving it 3 weeks before I use these fully as I want the donor area to remain clean and heal properly. There are 1 or 2 itchy spots where the staples were and if my head touches the car headrest the donor area is noticeably numb. All par for the course from what I read on the web. So far so good. I will post time and again with pics so you can see how it grows. It may take a while for it to grow but again that's to be expected. I guess you need to patient....my sons don't really like the buzz cut look... I'm stuck with it for a while though