Haarweb Forum - 3800 grafts with Feriduni yesterday

Hallo allemaal,

I heb dit in het Engels geschreven zodat ik het ook op een ander blog kan uploaden.

Groeten!

Dear all,

This is the first time I write in the forum even though I have read many of the messages for a very long time. Thanks first of all for all the interesting and valuable information posted here.

On this message I will write a lot of what happened before yesterday and how I dealt with it. And of course I will tell you about the FUT session I had.

I will start with some background info.

Me
I am 39 and started noticing some hair loss about 10 years ago. This last year the loss (according to me) was more than before and it was becoming clear that I would continue loosing hair on the upper part of my head and of course my crown. Bottom line, I thought that in a few years I may end-up with hair only on the sides and back which I definitely did not want.

Research
I think the first time I thought of a hair transplant was probably about 2 years ago and then started reading on internet information on it until I found the forum. In December 2006 I became a member and focused on getting information on the experiences of other people here with specific doctors.
Looking back this "research" time was also the time I needed to get ready for such a step psychologically speaking. I needed to slowly build into the idea of doing it and also see how this would be like when I had to go back to work. Being honest, the social situation around me after the transplant was the one that had me concerned the most.
However, please note that even though I have been loosing my hear for 10 years I still have enough so that I would not look bald but simply loosing my hair.
This is important because in my line of thought I wanted to have the transplant early enough so that it would not be so "obvious" that I had a transplant. I know that eventually people will say "what happened here?" when they pay attention but I will deal with it whenever it happens.

Dr. Feriduni
When choosing for a doctor I wanted someone first of all who could delivery quality. Having said that, I did not want to have to get a second mortgage to pay for the transplant. When doing my research I contacted a friend of mine who lives in Florida and who had a hair transplant a few years ago and asked him whether he could give me some contact names. He mentioned 2 doctors in Florida as well and I checked them on the internet. Through one the websites I got to the “International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons”. The biggest difference between this website and many others is what they state on the front page “The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons is a consumer organization that selectively screens skilled and ethical hair transplant surgeons. The IAHRS does not offer an open membership policy to doctors
practicing hair transplantation, and is the only group that recognizes that all
surgeons are not equal in their skill and technique.”
I really liked this. This meant clearly that any of the doctors listed would fit in what I wanted in terms of the quality I looked for. Then the pricing part had to be investigated.

I made a few pictures of my head and sent them to a few doctors. As the EURO is very strong I started sending them to one doctor in Florida who my friend had recommended. This to get an idea of how many grafts I would need and how much the price would be. I also checked the websites of the doctors in NL and BE and I got to Aesthetic Clinics that
publishes their price directly on their site. I saw that Dr. Feriduni was less expensive than the doctor in the US so I sent my pictures to him as well.

Both doctors came with the same needed grafts, 3000, so I knew at the time how much I would have to spend.

First Consultation
I made an appointment for a consultation in Veldhoven (with Peter van Ven). I enjoyed the meeting very much. He was very open, honest and gave me a very good feeling. I asked everything I could imagine about the procedure but also asked a lot about them. Why he worked there, who he considered their competitors, if he would stop working there where would he go, etc.
One of the best things that Peter did was try to manage correctly my expectations. I had read enough to know what to expect so what he told me was also what I thought it would be like. If you are reading this and are thinking of having a transplant it is important to be very realistic of what will happen and what the result will be. One of the things that Peter mentioned was that no matter what, this is an operation and therefore should not be underestimated.

I left the meeting and did not feel at all that I needed to talk with any other company so I made the appointment for yesterday. A few days after the appointment I got their offer which was based on the number of grafts that Peter had confirmed during the meeting (3000) and also mentioned that each additional 100 grafts would cost so much money and this with the final total amount that could be for 3400 grafts. This way I had a clear idea of how much it would cost altogether.

Operation
I arrived in Hasselt yesterday morning before 9 AM. I met first with the doctor because I had never met him before. He did the consultation I had had in Veldhoven again. Explained things, showed me pictures, discussed what needed to be discussed and was able to ask him as many questions as I wanted. His goal again was to ensure that my expectations were realistic. I enjoyed the meeting with the doctor very much. He is a very nice person, a very good person. I would summarize this clinic as a very straight forward clinic and the doctor simply a great person.

I will save you details of the session because they are not so relevant with exception of the following:

After the strip was taken and the wound was closed the ladies (very nice and experienced ladies) who work with Dr. Feriduni started harvesting the grafts.
In the morning I got the chance to ask for a sandwich for lunch so while they worked on the harvesting I was in another room eating my sandwich and watching a video.
When they were ready I was brought back to the operation room and they told me that they were going to get 3800 grafts out of the strip. That sounded good but I had no idea what this would also mean later on regarding the time it takes to place them on the skin.
The doctor had told me that he would need to shave part of my head to make the holes and then get the grafts in. So first thing he did was using a trimmer (0.8 mm). He would basically trim the upper part of my head with this. When he did it I was shocked. I had not realized how short it would be so the first thing I thought was “what about work in exactly 17 days when I get back from vacations??? What will I say to my colleagues when they see me walk in with VERY short hair”? I have been cutting my hair very short already for a while but the shortest had been probably 2 cms. so the difference was huge. I felt very anxious but then I thought I could do nothing about this anymore and I simply hope that that part will grow a lot in the next 2 weeks… I will cross the bridge when I get there.
By the way, the doctor has been very clear on how short it would be trimmed and he even showed me pictures but I just simply had not realized it completely in my head and the thought of going back to work. In one way better like this because if I had known then it would have taken me longer to get the whole procedure done.
Then he started making 3800 holes on my skin.
So far everything was quite alright. What I had not realized was that making 3800 holes on the skin goes rather fast, but placing 3800 grafts in holes on your skin takes many, yes MANY hours.
Three ladies worked at the same time relentlessly on placing the grafts. I am not exactly sure how long this whole process took, but it took a very long time.
This whole process is very draining. I started feeling exhausted. It was probably a combination of the (local) anaesthesia and maybe simply sitting there for hours. I am sure that it also has to do with the “excitement” of the whole situation. It is very difficult to explain how it was but believe it was difficult. My head felt bombed (probably the anaesthesia), I could not concentrate, I did not want to watch TV, I would have liked just very soft music eventually or simply nothing, while I felt that my mind was jumping around constantly. I felt physically drained and I felt I had no energy or strength left. I am a very healthy and active person doing sports 3 to 4 times a week, so this was certainly a completely new and unpleasant feeling. I just wanted the ladies to be done with the 3800 grafts so that I could go to the hotel and rest.
I can say that I understimated the operation and how tired I would be at the end.
The doctor came in several times checking on me and asking me whether I needed something and reviewing the work done by the ladies.
I think we started the complete procedure around 10 or 10:15 in the morning. I have no idea what time it was when we started the second part (making the holes) but I do know the ladies finished the 3800 grafts short after 7 PM. I will never forget the experience of the 3800 grafts being placed and it is something I would never want to have again, not because the ladies did not work fast, they did and a lot, but because the last 2 hours I would think, I felt I could not hold it together anymore and I just wanted to rest.
Anyway, after finished, they let water run on my head and basically got ready to leave. They had arranged next to the hotel a taxi for me. I was there with my car, but believe me, I did not want to even do the effort of trying to drive. You can’t drive anyway because of the anaesthesia used.

The First Night

The hotel is accustomed to get patients from Dr. Feriduni. Asking them to make the arrangement for the hotel was one of the best decisions I made. I arrived there with the taxi company they use always so they are also accustomed to having people with parts of their heads shaved. To be honest with you I was so exhausted I did not care at all if people would look at me, I just wanted to be in my room.

I ordered food for dinner, took a painkiller they had given me (by now I was already starting to feel some pain, discomfort is a much more appropriate word than pain) and shuffled around as much as I could the 3 pillows I would sue to spend the whole night half sitting while sleeping. At the clinic they also gave me this sort of neck pillow one uses for travelling; that helped also a lot.

I took from home sleeping pills, excellent idea as well. After a few hours I had eaten, had my painkiller and the sleeping pills and was ready to make the best out of the night.
It was difficult to fall asleep because my head felt full and my mind was still jumping around, I could still not concentrate and felt no energy to read so I tried to watch some TV. Eventually when the sleep aid started to work I could finally doze-off and altogether I had a very good night. I am sure it would have not been as good if I had not had my sleeping pills by me.

The day after

This morning I felt much much better than last night. I had energy again and I was ready to go. After breakfast in my room J I took the taxi for a control visit at the clinic. They washed (carefully) my head and then the doctor looked at the grafts and the scar behind my head. At this time I was already starting to realize that if I touched parts of my head I felt discomfort. I also mentioned to them that the left part of my face by the ear was more sensitive and looked bigger. I understood at the moment that that was the inflammation you get after the operation and that would only be the beginning.

They reviewed again the instructions with me, asked whether I had additional questions and of course reminded me of the phone numbers in case I needed anything and that if at any time I had a question I could call them.

At 9:30 this morning I left the clinic after having paid the total of the proposal. The proposal they had given me was for a max of 3400 grafts so the last 400 grafts were at no cost. I did not expect this so I was very surprised. Peter (the consultant) had said to me that they do not consider themselves a commercially driven clinic but one that is driven to delivery high quality and have happy customers. This was a confirmation to me.

I left feeling that the whole “personal” experience had been very good. Everybody since I went to Veldhoven and then to Hasselt treated me very well. Very respectful but friendly and understanding.

Then I drove 2 hours to get home. When I arrived I saw that my forehead was getting bigger with the inflammation and the side of my face also.

Now it is 9:30 PM and I definitely have big bumps on each side of my face. The left side inflammation continuous to go down my face so that part is much wider than normal and I definitely see that ¾ of my forehead is also bigger. The back of my head is swollen as well.

I tired to give here an idea of what the experience has been with some other info that may be interesting for other people. I hope this has helped.

I will try to get some pics tomorrow on the site as well.

If you anybody has any question please let me know.

Regards