Surgery Tomorrow with Dr. Ron Shapiro

jeffreyt21

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Thanks for the advice techproof. It has been almost a week now and I have shampooed my head three times thus far by just patting my head and scalp. I will start a gentle shampooing in the next day or two.
 

dbhair

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Jeffrey

Jeffrey,

I'm fairly new to this forum but I read your posts and am really excited for you. You couldn't be in any better hands that Dr. Shapiro,what a great surgeon and guy. I had surgery with him in 2000 and it was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. A year previous to that I'd had a very mediocre procedure done by Matt Leavitt of MHR and thankfully found Shapiro almost a year later to do a 2nd procedure and hide what Leavitt had done.

Watching the grafts all start to sprout up at about the 4 month mark was one of the more enjoyable things I can remember. Since it's been 6 years,I will need to get 1 more procedure probably to achieve the density I want but I feel good knowing how talented Shapiro is. By the way,do you mind saying how much the 2500 grafts cost? I'll need about 1500 or so I'd say myself. I wish you the best as you wait for the grafts to grow in,get excited!!
 

jeffreyt21

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hey dbhair,

Thanks for the encouragement and the kind words. I am super excited as well, and as everybody has said, the hardest part is the wait. It has been almost 5 weeks now since my surgery and I was told it would be 3.5-4 months before I noticed anything, so I am counting down the days.

I also couldn't be more pleased with Dr. Shapiro. I mean, I haven't seen my results yet, but I was very impressed with him, not only as a doctor, but as a person. Very genuine and sincere.

With regards to cost, I paid a little over 10 g's with all of the products and medications and fees. Hopefully, if will have been worth it.
 

dbhair

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Jeffrey,

Thanks for letting me know about the costs. I live far from MN so I'm hoping I can get my smaller procedure done for about 6k with everything. Don't worry too much about the wait,time flies and before you know it all those hairs will start popping up and it will look awesome. The best part about this is watching the reactions of hairdressers when I tell them what i had done and why I have the scar in the back of my head. Anyone whose been told has genuinely been very impressed by how natural this looks,it's a really good feeling. You have nothing to worry about but I'll be around if you need any support or questions answered over the months.
 

global

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DaveOne said:
Some strip docs say that ice can slow down the natural draining of all of the fluids that get injected to numb the recipient area. There is no real way to get around the swelling, the fluids have to drain away somehow. The best way to expedite this is to sleep in the angled position that most people talk about. Sleeping prone will force the fluid to collect around the eyes, thus taking longer to drain, but if you sleep more upright, the fluid can just follow gravity and work it's way down. Listen to the docs advice, he should have very specific instructions for your post op. Good luck.

This just doesn't make sense. The swelling is not caused because there is fluid that needs to be drained away. Rather it is the swelling which causes the fluid.

Swelling is an inflammatory response to the tissue injury and the fluid accumulates because of this inflammation. Applying ice reduces activity of macrophages and neutrophils and thus reduces their release of inflammatory cytokines and hence will prevent a build up of fluid.

If anything the swelling will prevent fluid draining away because the inceased pressure it causes will close off lymphatic vessels.
 
G

Guest

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Actually, it's both factors that cause swelling. The trauma causes swelling but so does the saline solutions injected in the scalp. It is then the effects of gravity that pull down the solution to the forehead and even the eyes usually by the third day following surgery. Then it tends to linger around for another three days or so.
 
G

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dbhair,

Did you end up with some bad scarring from Dr. Leavitt at MHR or was it just the final result?
 

dbhair

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Gillenator Re: Leavitt

Gillenator,

No,the scarring wasn't that bad really,I just was very disappointed by how mediocre the results were. I remember being excited when the hairs started popping in and then I noticed how pluggy some of the 4 and 5 hair grafts looked. I thought technology was way past the old plug look,and became more and more upset with the results I'd gotten.

At that time,1999,the Orlando area MHR office seemed to be doing many procedures a day,Leavitt would just pop in every now and then while the techs placed the grafts. It was just an assembly line basically,designed to bring in as much money as possible. They even had the nerve to try to charge me an extra $240 for an additional 30 grafts they placed. When I told the guy I was signed up to pay for 400 grafts,he snidely replied "Well,we can take them out if you want" or something to that effect.

I remember disliking the hairline and overall look so much that I was getting my haircut as often as once a week! It was at that length only that I could somewhat live with how it looked. Luckily the stock market was cranking in early 2000,and I took a chance based on some results I'd seen from Pat from hairtransplantnetwork.com,swallowed my fear and scheduled a procedure with Shapiro in March 2000.

The Shapiro procedure was a pleasure all the way through,nothing like the experience I had with MHR. Not only did Dr. Shapiro take a day from his vacation to do the surgery,but HE spent about 8 to 9 hours working on me,I was the ONLY patient of the day,something I learned was the norm with him,and very impressive. The guy was not only a super person,but a great surgeon. I've gotten so many compliments on how natural the procedure looks,from the people I've told of course. I'll need one more procedure it seems,to thicken behind the hairline,but the transplanted hair that I do have now looks great.
 
G

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dbhair,

Now that's what I love to hear, a nightmare that turned into something fantastic for the patient! I am happy for you that things turned out for the better, much better. :D

And that's why IMO I always, always discourage patients from going to the hair mills. ASSEMBLY LINE PRODUCTION! :freaked2:

My premonition is that they never used any microscopes for graft dissection either. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt it.

BTW, was your salesmen at MHR a guy named Stuart Bloom? If so, what is your opinion of him? Do you feel he is someone that can be trusted? :roll:
 

jeffreyt21

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I will post pics in a few months after the grafts have started to sprout. As many people have stated before, the hardest part about the whole thing is the wait. I am super excited to see the results though.
 
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