I did my research (thanks to this forum)and decided on using Dr. Rose in Tampa. I know he's been discussed in thread after thread as being the best, but man I'm still nervous. How much pain? How long will my head look a mess after?
shock loss? etc, etc. I hope they provide a "pansy" dose of tranks when I get there. Will post my dome before and after. Later, ASDS

Dood, you'll be fine. Its really not that bad of a surgery. Anything you can do in an outpatient clinic without monitored anesthesia care cannot possibly be that bad. I'd say the pain from the anesthesia shots is like a 4-5/10 with 10 being the worse pain I've ever experienced in my life. From that point on, I guess the scalp stipping feels a bit wierd, but not painful. Your head will look red and swollen for about a week but after that you should be okay.

You'll be fine buddy. I didn't think the procedure was bad at all. Its not like getting breast implants or a tummy tuck which I hear hurts like a biaattch!

Good luck man, looking forward to seeing your post op pics!

The anxiety is really the worse part for me. I am 3 days post op from my 6th surgery!
The anesthesia needles are like a pinching which isnt that bad and only lasts seconds.
You will definitely leave the surgery saying "wow that wasnt that bad at all" and will probably already want to schedule another one.
Good luck!

asds,

Congratulations on picking an excellent surgeon. You will be in good hands. I recommend doing some further research on some of the questions you asked...they are posted all over the forums. Additionally, you can look at www.regrowhair.com and http://www.hairlosslearningcenter.org/ to further increase your understanding of the procedure.

Generally speaking, the only "pain" you'll really have during the surgery are the pricks of the needles that administer the anesthetics...everything else is pain free. Just be honest with the techs and the doctor if you begin to feel anymore pain...they will give you more anesthetics so you don't feel anything. Regarding your head being a "mess", it depends how you define that. All scabs should be gone from your head within 8-12 days I'd say. Just make sure you follow Dr. Rose's instructions. Make sure when it says to resume normal washing that you actually do that. Many patients have a tendency to be too cautious which tends to keep scabs around longer than they should be. Redness may last up to 2+ months but will get increasingly better over time. Shockloss is definitely a possibility if you are transplanting hairs surrounding native hairs. It's not really predictable whether or not that will happen to you, but the death weeks for me are typically between 5-9 where the worst shockloss I experience is between 6-8 weeks. This last surgery I didn't struggle with a lot of shockloss...it was very minimal.

I hope this helps.

Falc