Donor Area still hurts

[FUE3800Graftshead]

Hello,

It's the 12th day post operation but the donor area is still hurting and feels soft.

The pain is only at around 1/10 when I run my hands on it, and when I sleep on it it's about 2/3 out of 10 (but I'm sleeping on my sides still).

Also, the donor area is pretty much all cleaned up apart from tiny dots of blood that now seems to be permanent as they're tough to rub away (especially when the donor hurts). Is there anything I can do about that?

Also, is it normal that the donor is still hurting at this stage?

 

[reddwarf]

Could it be just something like the nerve endings settling down after surgery?

 

[FUE3800Graftshead]

I hope so. I'm just really anxious that this might be permanent.

 

[Bigmac]

Could you possibly post some pictures showing the donor area with these blood spots?

 

[JoeTillman]

It isn't unheard of for the donor area to be painful, to a degree, two weeks post-op. What do you mean that the donor area feels "soft"? How many grafts did you have?

 

[FUE3800Graftshead]

I had 3800 grafts.

What I mean by soft, is that the skin feels about a 'layer' lighter and therefore more delicate when you touch it. This, in the process, makes it emit some light pain when touching it lightly.

I've attached photos of the tiny blood spots. It's basically blood that was sucked into the tiny holes made and it stayed 'stuck' there for a number of days as initially I was told not to wash my head until day 3. Then, when day 3 arrived, I couldn't wash my head thoroughly enough as I had to be careful not to be too aggressive with the wash and therefore those blood spots couldn't be 'forced' or washed out properly (and so they went on to dry themselves).

 

[sl]

WIth FUE you can have some occipital nerve pain, this usually starts about day 5 post surgery and normally goes by the second week. It is worse at night and with pain killers and cold Aloe Vera gel applied it really helps. I had it once ever in all of my surgeries only but I recall it well.

At this stage the donor extraction points should be nicely shrinking and you massage well to actually help to promote healing and shedding of old skin, but as said here, it can be a little sensitive to touch also.

Not a bad idea to see your own clinic for their input now and so you follow their protocol and for them to put your mind at rest and give guidance but some discomfort is normal as you heal and as you touch the donor also.

Hope the issue diminishes and sure it will soon.

 

[FUE3800Graftshead]

Thanks. Today is my last official recovery day and I followed their instructions. However, their instructions gave little action to do regarding the donor area, it was simply 'tap donor area with shampoo', the rest of the instructions was about looking after the transplanted area and general advice (to stay away from gym, etc).

 

[janna]

I've found that many FUE patients report of pain, irritation and itching in the donor intensify between post op day 6 to 14.
We advise them to take Ibuprofen for pain at night and possibly an antihistamine for the itching.

 

[Viking]

How does it feel now?

 

[FUE3800Graftshead]

Everything is now fine apart from:

- 0.5 out of 10 pain when I tap certain part of my head - I expect this to clear up gradually. It hasn't been two months yet.
- Slight numbness on top of head,but this has been getting better and better.
- The hairs are still standing up but become softer when I wet the hair with water. I expect a little bit of gel would do the job, until the hairs, I suspect, become softer and softer as the months go on.
- The final results are due to be observed in around a year's time - I'm not holding much expectations, but it's good to get over the worse of it now.

 

[Pete from Farjo]

Sounds like things are settling down. From my experience the numbness can take a while but will disappear over time. As you say, you're through the worst of it now and it's just a waiting game.

 

[FUE3800Graftshead]

Thanks.

Do you know of any shampoo that I can take that would help maximize the growth? I'm looking to only take it up to the final result - afterwards I would stop due to costs reasons (and hopefully it wouldn't fall out due stopping it).