G
GregK
Valued member
After a lengthy search, I decided to use Shapiro Medical Group for my FUE procedure. I'm going to keep this short, but wanted to share my experience.
I am a surgeon myself, and am quite familiar with what constitutes a great experience when undergoing a procedure. An old question comes to mind which was polled in our local newspaper years ago: If you were to need a surgery and you had the choice of the highest skilled surgeon with a below average bedside manner, or an average skilled surgeon with the best bedside manner, which would you pick? To my surprise, many people chose the surgeon with average skills. 8 days a week and on Saturday and Sunday I would pick the highest skilled surgeon and could care less about bedside manner. When I originally heard this question, my first thought was "Wouldn't it be ideal to have both?" Well, that is exactly the experience I had with Dr. Ron and Dr. Joe, and actually the entire staff at Shapiro Medical Group.
Initially, I spoke with Matt (patient care coordinator). Matt answered all of my questions via phone calls and emails. He is extremely knowledgeable, and has worked there for 25 years. By the way, most of the staff has been there for many years as well.
Next, I scheduled a phone call with Dr. Ron, who thoroughly answered all of my questions and gave his recommendations. He spent as much time as was necessary, and never felt rushed.
My actual procedure was completed over 2 days. On the first day, I met with Dr. Ron and he again answered my questions as well as made his suggestions on how to best proceed. We discussed my hairline and desired results. The rest of the day he made most of the initial incisions. The entire day took around 4 hours in total.
On day two, Dr. Joe and staff first did the harvesting of the grafts. For those wondering about the pain level, my experience was extremely comfortable. Injection of the local anesthesia was done with the aid of vibration, which almost completely masks any pain from the injections. If I had to quantify it, I would say 1/10, with a rare 2/10. It was much less than what I though it would be. The grafts were then placed into the existing incisions. Along the way, Dr. Ron was watching the procedure, and he made new incisions as needed. I asked him to make my hairline just slightly lower than what we initially decided. At this time, we decided to not do any work on the crown area but rather to try meds first and see how it goes from there.
My procedure was done on a Monday and Tuesday. I ended up staying in Minneapolis from Sunday - Saturday, though there was no need to stay that long. I could have returned on Wednesday. For those of you from out of town, I highly recommend staying at the Four Seasons. It is a brand new hotel (opened last summer). There are many hotels closer to the facility, but this hotel was phenomenal. Many people from the local area stay there as a stay-cation. Whole Foods is directly across the street, and Uber was always accessible in under 10 minutes. The clinic was around 20 min away via Uber. Although expensive, the hotel offered 3 nights for the price of 2. So even though I stayed 6 nights, I only paid for 4. Lastly, please go to Martina restaurant (or have Doordash deliver). Trust me on that one.
My experience was excellent from start to finish. Technical skills of the highest level, combined with the best bedside manner make this a world-class clinic worth traveling to from any location. Coming from a fellow surgeon, I cannot speak highly enough of Dr. Ron, Dr. Joe and the entire staff.
Pre-op pictures
Post-op pictures.
pre and post-op donor area pictures.
I am a surgeon myself, and am quite familiar with what constitutes a great experience when undergoing a procedure. An old question comes to mind which was polled in our local newspaper years ago: If you were to need a surgery and you had the choice of the highest skilled surgeon with a below average bedside manner, or an average skilled surgeon with the best bedside manner, which would you pick? To my surprise, many people chose the surgeon with average skills. 8 days a week and on Saturday and Sunday I would pick the highest skilled surgeon and could care less about bedside manner. When I originally heard this question, my first thought was "Wouldn't it be ideal to have both?" Well, that is exactly the experience I had with Dr. Ron and Dr. Joe, and actually the entire staff at Shapiro Medical Group.
Initially, I spoke with Matt (patient care coordinator). Matt answered all of my questions via phone calls and emails. He is extremely knowledgeable, and has worked there for 25 years. By the way, most of the staff has been there for many years as well.
Next, I scheduled a phone call with Dr. Ron, who thoroughly answered all of my questions and gave his recommendations. He spent as much time as was necessary, and never felt rushed.
My actual procedure was completed over 2 days. On the first day, I met with Dr. Ron and he again answered my questions as well as made his suggestions on how to best proceed. We discussed my hairline and desired results. The rest of the day he made most of the initial incisions. The entire day took around 4 hours in total.
On day two, Dr. Joe and staff first did the harvesting of the grafts. For those wondering about the pain level, my experience was extremely comfortable. Injection of the local anesthesia was done with the aid of vibration, which almost completely masks any pain from the injections. If I had to quantify it, I would say 1/10, with a rare 2/10. It was much less than what I though it would be. The grafts were then placed into the existing incisions. Along the way, Dr. Ron was watching the procedure, and he made new incisions as needed. I asked him to make my hairline just slightly lower than what we initially decided. At this time, we decided to not do any work on the crown area but rather to try meds first and see how it goes from there.
My procedure was done on a Monday and Tuesday. I ended up staying in Minneapolis from Sunday - Saturday, though there was no need to stay that long. I could have returned on Wednesday. For those of you from out of town, I highly recommend staying at the Four Seasons. It is a brand new hotel (opened last summer). There are many hotels closer to the facility, but this hotel was phenomenal. Many people from the local area stay there as a stay-cation. Whole Foods is directly across the street, and Uber was always accessible in under 10 minutes. The clinic was around 20 min away via Uber. Although expensive, the hotel offered 3 nights for the price of 2. So even though I stayed 6 nights, I only paid for 4. Lastly, please go to Martina restaurant (or have Doordash deliver). Trust me on that one.
My experience was excellent from start to finish. Technical skills of the highest level, combined with the best bedside manner make this a world-class clinic worth traveling to from any location. Coming from a fellow surgeon, I cannot speak highly enough of Dr. Ron, Dr. Joe and the entire staff.
Pre-op pictures
Post-op pictures.
pre and post-op donor area pictures.
