Hi Janna I was going to send you an email with these questions but I don't think I have ever seen them addressed on the forums so many members may not even know they exist.

On my first two HT's the injections into the back of my head to removed the strip were next to painless however the injections into the top of my head for the grafts hurt beyond belief. For procedure #3 Dr Cohen had a hand held vibrating device (ok no jokes guys, lol) that he used on the top of my head while he gave the shots. I'm not sure exactly how it worked but the vibration on my head made those shots almost painless.

My question is does Dr Shapiro offer this ?

After my first two procedures I decided not to get the cortisone shot that was offered to me and had a lot of swelling. On my 3rd procedure I got the shot and had very little if any swelling.

Does Dr Shapiro offer cortisone shots after the procedure ?


I have one more question that I sent you via email.

Thanks

You might have something here with the cortisone shots. I just returned from SMG tuesday with a scar revision and some hairline work. Dr Shapiro also injected 3 raised scars I had from a motorcycle accident that were right above the donor closure with cortisone .
Well for the first time in 3 procedures I had absolutly no swelling back there. It could just be that since it was only a revision and not much tissue was taken out but for whatever reason there is no swelling at all. Heck it actually feels like it was never touched. Maybe the kenalog injections kept everything calm.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by HT55:

On my first two HT's the injections into the back of my head to removed the strip were next to painless however the injections into the top of my head for the grafts hurt beyond belief. For procedure #3 Dr Cohen had a hand held vibrating device (ok no jokes guys, lol) that he used on the top of my head while he gave the shots. I'm not sure exactly how it worked but the vibration on my head made those shots almost painless.

My question is does Dr Shapiro offer this ?

HT55,

I missed this thread. It's always a good idea to send a pm or email to alert me as I don't always peruse every sections on the forums.

The small vibrating device is something we do have for our paients who are less tolerant to the local injections. We will use it for the front and back if the patient indicates the shots are very painful.

As far as your cortisone shot question; no, the shots are not part of our ht procedure. Our doctors have administered cortisone shots but the shots did not have anything to do with the ht surgery or to prevent post op swelling.

PGP - the lack of tightness on your donor scar I think has more to do with the small scar that was excised than the cortisone shot. Just my take on it as we've done other scar revisions and they all say the tightness is non existent after a revision and none of them had the cortisone shots.