So - transplant is all done! The last grafts and SMP went in at about 6.15PM yesterday.
So far, all I can say about Dr Williams and the whole team at the clinic is that they are superb. It was all very easy. I felt very welcome and looked after. Dr Williams couldn't have been nicer and his team seemed diligent and professional. The entire focus of the clinic and staff that day was on me. I would recommend them to anyone.
We had another consultation and drew out the proposed hairline and sections. Straight after this, I was given 10MG valium along with some other meds which chilled me out completely, and things kicked off. Halfway through the day I was given another 10MG of valium and some codeine which made the afternoon very relaxed and, as much as it can be, enjoyable. I snoozed, watched a film and the news.
Following the surgery, I was immediately very pleased with the lack of swelling compared to that in my first procedure. I was expecting significant lumps of swelling on the head/forehead/face, but this was not the case at all. I bled a lot during this procedure which Dr Williams predicted due to the fact my scalp goes quite red when touched by hand. This bleeding led to more anaesthetic being required as well as a lot of fluid injections. The Dr explained during the procedure that, due to this, there may be increased swelling. So far, though, there is a little around the forehead but nothing major at all.
I am very happy with the way that the incisions and grafts look at this stage (for what that is worth). The density looks good, as does the placement. I am also very happy with the way the grafts have been taken from the donor zone as it appears very random and well selected. I have been spraying every two hours with saline solution when awake, and also sprayed during the night when i woke up in the middle of my 4 hours of so of sleep - so that's been going well. They advised me not to spray the donor zone because of the SMP, so I have only been spraying the recipient zone.
I woke up at 6am this morning because I felt myself rubbing my right hand temporal peak grafts. This immediately worried me and I got up to see what, if anything, had happened. I was very deflated to see that the area was bleeding, and it was pretty clear that I had dislodged some of the grafts. For anyone whose had a HT, you will understand the level of concern attached to this, and it is pretty mortifying to think you've damaged the work. What a fu(king nightmare....
I took some pictures and sent these to Dr Williams immediately, and within 2 mins he video called me to talk it through. He explained that this was really nothing to worry about, and that it would make little to no difference at all to my results. He is a very straight talking man so I know this was his real view and not something that he said to reassure me. The harvest of grafts led to a very good hair count of 2.9 per graft. Therefore, I have had between 5,000 and 6,000 hairs inplanted. The large part of knows that rubbing out a few single grafts on the temporal peak will make absolutely no difference to my end results, but the smaller, post hair transplant, paranoid and obsessive part of me is still pretty p1ssed off about it...
I am not looking forward to tonight following what happened this morning, and I will be tying my arms together with a pair of tights. I hope that this will make me wake up if I am about to move my hands up to itch/rub.
My instructions are to wash my hair tonight (just 24 hours post procedure) by placing a hand towel that they have given me on my head and wetting it with a shower - the adding some shampoo on top of the wet towel and gently patting it for a while before removing the towel, rinsing the shampoo off it and placing it back on my head for some more gentle finger pats to get off any shampoo residue. I am dreading this, to be honest, as I am acutely worried about disturbing the grafts. I emailed my concern to the clinic and, once again, Dr Williams video called me within a couple of minutes. He explained that it is perfectly safe to do this and they instruct this follwing their decades of work and research in the industry - and then he walked me through the method. I know he's right and its fine - but I am still crapping myself that i'll cock it up. Let's see how it goes!
One thing I can also say is that I am very impressed so far that Dr Williams calls me in person without any delays if I want to know something.
Lots of photos below . Will post again in a few days.
