• Welcome to Hair loss Experiences hair loss forum.

    Free impartial hair loss advice, hair transplant advice, hair loss medications and hair loss news.
    You can contact us directly at [email protected] if you experience any problems.

timuk - my HT repair

timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Hi all....

Well.... its been just over 8 months since my HT repair back in April 2008. I will say that its not been an easy time and my down time was longer than expected... though I will say I was warned of this being that I was a repair patient.

For the new forum here is an account of the first few days.... I will post some pictures asap and also update you all on my current situation.

So.. here it is..

My trip,



All started on Saturday 5th April, stayed at a hotel at Stanstead Airport as my flight meant I had to get there early, I would recommend this to anyone if you are planning a longer stay in the USA. The hotel charge about £10 more for a room and up to 15 days parking than just parking for 2 weeks. Flew out on Sunday morning, flight was good and arrived at JFK around 1.30pm local time. For any other guys that smoke, I was dreading a 7 hour flight but a friend told me to try a nicotine patch, worked very well.



I have read several comments on being ripped off by Taxis, I had pre-booked mine with the Andrew Hotel, there was some confusion and I ended up waiting for about half an hour, Taxi charge was $43 plus the few dollar tip I gave the driver (great guy and I could write forever about our journey). Some guys on here have mentioned paying as much as $100, so make sure you call them, they will give you a phone number to call when you arrive.



Plenty of write ups here about the Andrew, so will not go into detail, nice and clean place, friendly, fell in love with one blonde receptionist €¦.dream on !! Since starting to write this I have only one moan about the hotel, the room service, cant say that I have liked anything that much, but then again I am a fussy eater and even though I now feel ok I do not feel that hungry...



Spent Monday shopping, wanted to make sure I had plenty of supplies to last a few days in case I wanted to hide away. I bought some coffee / sugar and bottled water, you can get from room service but will cost a small fortune. am now looking at a fancy bottle of still water with a price tag of $5.50, and you will be surprised how many of those you could get through.. remember plenty of fluids..



Had a wander around Great Neck, REMEMBER.. DONT use the Green Cross Code here, I nearly got run over on my first road crossing ! Decided to do a trial run to Doctor Feller €™s office on Monday evening, I could not find the map that someone posted on here so I used Multimap, my route took me along the main roads and took about half an hour, made me realise how unfit I am. Still, it made me tired and I had no problems sleeping Monday night.



Having been warned about the importance of being on time, better still early, for your appointment I was so paranoid that I set two alarms and booked an alarm call €¦



So, had a light breakfast and then set off before 7. Arrived at the clinic early and waited around for about 20 minutes, during this time I will admit that I started to have second thoughts and even worked out that I could even have time to be on a plane home within a few hours.. honest ! I suppose this was mainly down to a sudden flashback to my Uk transplants and the pain and healing time.. but just as I was trying to tell myself the reason I was here was to €œbe fixed € Dr Feller arrived.



I have read how he puts people at ease and within 10 minutes all thoughts of €œrunning away € had vanished.



Dr Feller is a really nice guy, I think his confidence about what he does somehow wins you over. He drew on my forehead, told me the plan and we started. I had decided not to make my mind up about FUE or strip until I met Dr Feller, FUE did not even come into the equation, so strip it was.



The worst bit as mentioned by many is the injections, but as soon as they start they are over, I found that it was worse in the top of my head but its all over very quickly.



The strips were taken, no pain just a funny crunching sound, nothing bad, then the staples put in. Then the dreaded injections into the recipient area, not pleasant but not terrible. Dr Feller then went to work on making the slits in the recipient area, again no pain just a strange sensation. Soon after two of his lovely technicians started to place my grafts. Then a short break for lunch after which another two technicians continued with the graft placement. Ended up with Dr Feller returning to make some more slit as there were some grafts left over. Then I was bandaged up, some photos were taken. It was at this point that we found out that the baseball caps I had got did not fit unless the back strap was left undone, so I was covered but paranoid about it blowing off. A taxi was called for me and before I knew it I was back to the €œsafety € of my hotel room. I had been paranoid about walking into the hotel reception, but should not have worried as the doorman €™s only comment was that he hoped that I had had a good day, the receptionist just smiled and that was that.



Its strange as I feel that the day went very quickly, I was not the nervous wreck I thought I would be and all went better than expected. The strange thing was how tired I was, felt like I had run a marathon and yet all I had done was sit in a chair.



I think that the worse part was the night of the surgery, I did not feel very well and actually threw up, felt better afterwards but probably only slept for about an hour. I suppose I was not expecting a good night. Its now Friday, 3 days post op and I am feeling better and better. Problems with the baseball caps again, there is a vent at the back that is just in the right place to see the staples, so I have resorted to a light bandage for going out with the cap on top. One essential item I forgot and ended up going to buy is a small mirror, the hotel mirrors do not move so to check the back of my head I had to take photos, with the cap problem this ended up being a nightmare, so the mirror has saved me ages in getting ready each day.



So, that €™s about it folks, like many of you know I have decided to stay in New York until April 19th, main reasons for this were that I could not think of a better place to hide away than thousands of miles from home and also so that I could have the staples removed by Doctor Feller before my return to the Uk. I do know that it adds to the cost of all this but I think its worth it, but each to their own.



A couple of last comments just to bore you all to death.. plenty of shops nearby that sell anything you could need, people I have spoken to outside of the hotel all thought I was Australian, must be that kangaroo I have with me :unsure:


Cheers everyone



Have a great day !!


 
Last edited:
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks Tim for documenting your HT journey again.

Looking forward to seeing your pictures.
 
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Here we are... starting from a pre-op...

This picture was taken about 1 month before I started on Proscar.. and about 4 months before my HT..

It now shocks me as to how thin / balding I was... I think I used to ignore pics like this... this is the only one I have that shows the full extent of my hairloss.. all the others I have pre-meds and HT are all front shots that do not show the true condition of my hair...

I guess it was a case of MPB denial !!!! :)

 

Attachments

  • comp for 081008.jpg
    comp for 081008.jpg
    45.4 KB · Views: 1,180
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Now... here is a month 7 pic to show the difference... though the angle and lighting are different there is a great impovement from the pre photo.

I am currently almost 9 months post op and about 1 year on Proscar...

I cant say exactly what the improvement is due to the medication... but the mid and crown have improved and these areas did NOT have any grafts placed in them.
 

Attachments

  • month 7a.jpg
    month 7a.jpg
    67.5 KB · Views: 1,244
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Here is a photo taken immediatley PRE-op


 

Attachments

  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    20.4 KB · Views: 1,197
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
And another taken immediately POST-op
 

Attachments

  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    22 KB · Views: 1,240
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
And now.... to ensure everyone is 100% sick and tired of photo's of my head... or to excite all those Hair-Transplant-O-philes out there... here are the month 1 to 7 pics :q

Month 1 May 8th 2008



 

Attachments

  • month 1.jpg
    month 1.jpg
    28.1 KB · Views: 1,195
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 2 June 8th 2008


 

Attachments

  • month 2.jpg
    month 2.jpg
    25.9 KB · Views: 1,206
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 3 July 8th 2008




 

Attachments

  • month 3.jpg
    month 3.jpg
    30.6 KB · Views: 1,182
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 4 August 8th 2008


 

Attachments

  • month 4.jpg
    month 4.jpg
    35.3 KB · Views: 1,149
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 5 September 8th 2008
 

Attachments

  • month 5.jpg
    month 5.jpg
    31.4 KB · Views: 1,135
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 6 October 8th 2008


 

Attachments

  • month 6.jpg
    month 6.jpg
    53 KB · Views: 1,146
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Month 7 November 8th 2008


 

Attachments

  • month 7a.jpg
    month 7a.jpg
    67.5 KB · Views: 1,137
Last edited:
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Just a note ...

The only area that I received grafts to the front part of my scalp... any improvement to my mid and crown is down to Proscar.. and maybe Rogaine... I apply Rogaine just once a day and not twice as recommended..

Cheers all
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
Nice to see your progress. Can I make one request? Could you post a pic from the front as if some is standing at a comfortable distance from you when speaking? I hope you have a timer function on your camera.
 
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Hi Janna...

Hope your Christmas is going well.....

Will get a pic posted tomorrow...

Tim :)




 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
Sounds good, Tim......take your time.

My Christmas was just fine, thank you. Read a little bit about your Christmas with a little 70 yr old lady wanting you, or may it was your secret for thick hair.
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
looking good now tim mate thanks for posting ;)
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
I'm glad you're took my advice about taking your time to post updated pics, but...... :twitch: come on, is there a new woman in your life to explain your absence? Let's put it this way, it's the only explanation I'll accept. Wouldn't want it to be all work and no play for poor Timbo.
 
Nervousnelly

Nervousnelly

The Coolest Member
Timbo got a new girl?? Remember that those thoughts you get pass thru synapses to the other side of the brain. Ofcourse I am assuming that is where your 1/2 of the brain resides.:whatever:

NN
 
Top