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Just got back from Shapiro Medical Group

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lcsulla

Valued member
Well I just arrived home after spending three days in Minneapolis at Shapiro Medical Group. And first let me tell you that I was immensely impressed with the skill, dedication, professionalism, and more importantly the friendliness of everyone, from the staff to Dr. Paul.

After arriving at the hotel around 11pm, I crashed and work up bright and early for my 8am meeting at SMG. Once I got there I filled out some release forms and decided on my lunch (Fried Chicken for me!!) I then got some pre-op pics taken and then move into Matt €™s office to discuss goals and what Dr. Paul thought was the best approach for my particular situation. For me I wanted to get as much done as possible, but I wanted particular attention to focus on my bald spot. I had a procedure in the mid-90 €™s at Nuhart in Pittsburgh. While they didn €™t butcher my hair like others I have seen on this board, the results were less then stellar. I had large plugs (15-20 hairs) throughout my crown in a grid pattern. It seems the only thing they did well was not give me a crazy scar. Even Dr. Paul surprised how it looked.

After discussing hairline and the option to shave the crown or not (at first I was reluctant because I didn €™t want anyone to know I had anything done, but ultimately decided I would rather do it right the first time). I also decided on the Acell to help the grafts and the Vitrese (sp?) to help elasticity.

Dr. Paul then noticed where I was from and we started talking about different areas around town (he grew up right down the road from me). And then we found out that I used to go to his younger brother €™s restaurant when I was in HS! How weird is that? Anyway we had a good laugh and talked a little more about the area and how it had changed.

From there we went into the operating room and Dr. Paul introduced me around to the team. They were all very nice and were genuinely happy to meet me. After some preliminary BP tests and whatnot, we got down to business. First they gave me a couple pills to help with everything. From there they began giving me nerve bloke and local anesthesia above my eyes, temples, and back around the back hairline. Dr. Paul then trimmed the areas of hair he wanted to work on. He then moved to removing the grafts, constructing the hairline, to making incisions, and color coating them for proper placement.

We then took a lunch break and began the process of planting the grafts. Let me stop here and tell you that the techs at SMG must have super-human endurance and patience. They will sit there for hrs and precisely plant the grafts; sometimes 3000+!! I never would have thought it would be that meticulous. I mean it makes sense €¦but to see it €¦just wow.

Anyway we got done around 7pm and Dr. Paul, being the great guy that he is gave me a ride back to my hotel. We joked around a bit about my weird constitution and how it seems that it takes the maximum amount of drugs to work on me. LOL

The next day I came in and had my wash and Dr. Paul and Janna came in and took a look and commented how good it looked . Now all I have to do is wait for all the growth!

PS I again want to thank Dr. Paul, Janna, Erin, Song, Matt and everyone else that was such a tremendous help!
And if anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them.

Surgery with Dr. Paul Shapiro
2/9/12

Graft/Hair Total & Breakdown:
1's - 506
2's - 1800
3's - 728
4's - 131

3165 Grafts = 6874 Hairs


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bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Congratulations on your procedure with Dr Paul, i enjoyed reading your write up and am looking forward to following your progress. SMG are simply awesome and your great experience echoed my own.

Rest up and heal well my friend.

warm wishes BN;)
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
Hi,

Glad your back home safely. I'll add your pics Monday after I get a chance to block out your face as you requested. We appreciate you sharing your ht journey. We look forward to following your progress.

Heal well.
 
L

lcsulla

Valued member
Thanks everyone.

Oh I won't forget the next check will be made to "staff", Janna. ;)
 
L

lcsulla

Valued member
Oh and I want to thank bullitnut as well. Your third write up helped me immensely.

Thanks!
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for sharing your experience with the forum.

Glad it all went so well and i`ll look forward to seeing your pictures.

Heal and grow well.

Bm.


 
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thincity

Valued member
Arrived at LaQuinta this afternoon, also thanks Bullinut, got neck pillow and recliner ready. Your3rd write up was great! Icsulla, did you have any plugs punched out? Looking forward to seeing your pics. Its really slow typing on my nook. Ill try and give a brief update tomorrow night.
 
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lcsulla

Valued member
Hi thincity,

Truthfully I don't know. I think I did, and I only say that because I used to have this HUGE plug on my crown, like bean stalk big, and I can't seem to see it.

But Janna would know if they did any removals.

Oh and I look forward to hearing about your procedure.
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
Plugs were not punched out in the crown. I believe Dr. Paul thought the new grafts in the crown would camoflauge any plugs. It'll be a lot harder to notice them in about 9 months to a year from now.

Your pics will added to your write up post as I've asked Bigmac to post the pics for you so it's at the front of this thread.
 
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Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
The work looks nice and refined. this will make a very nice difference to your appearance.

Do you know how many grafts were placed in your crown.

Cheers Bm.
 
L

lcsulla

Valued member
I think Dr. Paul said around 1800, but I am not totally sure. Janna?
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
That sounds about right. I know you ended up getting more grafts than first anticipated, which allowed more grafts to be distributed into the crown.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thats a decent amount of grafts in the crown, should make a great difference.


 
H

hdude46

Valued member
janna,

this might be a weird question, but lsculla ever wanted to lower his hairline, would it actually end up taking up more grafts overall than had it been placed lower to begin with and using doubles and triple behind it?

By that I mean, because the hairline takes up so many single hair grafts, wouldn't placing more singles below the transplanted hairline (a bunch of singles already) cause for more grafts to be used, if that makes sense?
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
You can always cut down 2,3, or 4 hair grafts to make single hair grafts in the future if it's needed. However, Dr. Paul place his new hairline appropriately so that lowering it is not necessary. Isculla wants the donor bank researved for the top if needed in the future. His goals and expectations are realistic.

Generally, if a patients wants to further lower their hairline after a procedure, only a select few who's hair loss has not progressed by much, if at all, are able to have it lowered. These patients tend to have ample donor supply so needing a few more single hair grafts is not a problem.

Hope that answers your question.
 
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lcsulla

Valued member
Hi hdude46,

Thought I would chime in here on the hairline question. The hairline Dr. Paul gave me is more or less .5 inches above my hairline from HS. I have a bit of a high forehead, so for me the hairline is very good. Would I love to get that .5 back? Sure, but not at the expense of depleting my donor hair. I am more of the mind that I would rather have a bit of a recession on my hairline and be thick everywhere else then have a thick hairline and a bald spot...but that's just me.

But if hair cloning came out tomorrow; I would be calling up Janna and booking another round next year and get me some Cristiano Ronaldo hair!
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
How are you getting on now as you`ll be nearing the half way stage.
 
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lcsulla

Valued member
Hey Bigmac,

Sorry it took me a while to respond. Well I am going into month 6 this week and here are my results so far:

Over all I would say things are looking good. I started growing at around month three and have grown well since. The crown is filling nicely and the right side is growing like crazy. The problems are the front, which has had some modest growth, but I still don't have a solid hairline. The weakest by far in the left side. There has been some growth (I have a hard time seeing my old plugs) but it has a very jagged look to it. There are small vertical rows of hairs that have sprouted, but nothing else. But I know if I dont get anymore growth then my right side will look a lot lower then my left.
 
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