I have a thread going here from earlier but I wanted to start a new one and describe what happened to me today. I've just had a procedure done with Dr. Feller today, in fact I just got home about 3 hours ago.

Surgery:
I arrived at the doctor's office about 15 min early, which gave me time to get a cup of coffee to help me wake up. I'm lucky since I live about 30 min. drive away from his office.

The doctor went through the pre-op session with me which basically was me asking questions, him answering candidly. He then drew a hairline which was to be filled in. I'm lucky I suppose, since while I have pronounced hair loss on the front of my head the back & top and perfectly fine & hairy. The doctor commented that I'd be a good showcase for him, being relatively young at 27 and that the difference would be fairly dramatic. He asked whether he could use my photos for advertising, etc. and I told him to go ahead & do anything he likes with them.

The surgery itself was long. I was originally to have 2,500 grafts put in, but he managed to extract more and put those in which means I ended up with 3,300 grafts total, all concentrated on the front half of the head. The doctor seems to think the results will be very nice and boy, do I hope he's right.

Additional grafts mean more time spent, and I was there from 7:45 am to 5:00pm. I watched some movies during the surgery and the doc bought me lunch; still, the entire process was fairly grueling. Not painful, but how long can you sit without moving before you start to feel uncomfortable, really?

The doctor's staff was very good and friendly. They were somewhat bummed at the fact that I'd had a few beers the week before surgery, which thinned the blood and made their work tough. I didn't receive the pre-op instructions and the prescription for painkillers which were mailed to me and, as a consequence of which I did a few things wrong (no button down shirt, no painkillers bought ahead of time, beer). He gave me another prescription as I was leaving and I bought them on the way home. When I did get home, I found a letter in my mailbox - the prescription and the instructions. Go go gadget US postal service...

Once surgery was done, the doc took a few more pictures, gave me a prescription for Propecia and I headed home. On the way home anesthetic wore off and by the time I got my prescription filled, 2 hours later, it hurt. Boy, did it! Fortunately, the painkiller took care of it and I could think again

So now I have 3 days off ahead of me before I go back to work. I'll get Propecia tomorrow and spend the weekend sequestered, sheltering my new hair. Afterwards I'll probably have to see a lot of people as nearly everyone I know has been told I'm getting it done and will want to see the result!

I'll update this post in a few weeks with some pictures and try to provide an ongoing progress report.

I feel pretty good about doing it. So far, so good! To conclude, I'd recommend Dr. Feller to anyone based on the initial experience, and I hope the results will be good enough for this recommendation to stand.

Youngguy,

Congrats on your surgery with Dr. Feller. I look forward to seeing some photos when you get a chance!

Falc

Younguy,

I'm glad to hear everything went well with your HT. I'm scheduled with Dr. Feller for the end of February, so I'm happy you'll be sharing your pictures. Best of luck as your recovery progresses.

Young guy, congratulations, you will be glad you went thru the temporary pain and recovery period. It will be worth it.

Trust me on this, if you can, take a few more days off. That will really help, the swelling you may get in your forehead and eyes will kick in days 3-6. In a week, you will be looking much closer to normal. The scabs will have shrunken or fallen off and your redness in the recipient area will have subsided.

Good luck my friend! Follow those post op instructions!! Beer is OK now

Welcome to the club. Feller gave me 4000 in Nov. Funny thing, he gave me the same line about using my pictures, maybe we will be the new generation poster boys for him. Mine are just over 2 months now and are sprouting everywhere.

Congrats Youngguy!!!

Nobuzz, I really would like to take more time off but can not. I wish though!

I was really surprised to feel no pain whatsoever when I woke up today. The doctor really must've done something right for it to last such a short time!

As far as the pictures, JohnS, you're not lying as "poster boy" was exactly the phrase used But hey, the way I see it, if the doctor is good and wants to use a lot of people to show off his work, more power to him. The more people he works on, the fewer will be butchered by some other quack, right?

Day 9 update: The sutures came out 2 days ago and I can now sleep much better (you wouldn't believe how many times those silly things will wake you up at night!). Skin on my head is still a little tight and the scar a little tender, but everyone who saw it commented on how small it was and it doesn't hurt anymore. SO it's largely back to normal.

The new hair has began to fall out, ever so slowly, and scabs are forming. At this pace I'm hoping in another week or two I'll be able to get a buzz cut and go without a hat, which would be great!

In short, so far - so good!

I will post some before & after pictures as soon as I have them available.

Glad to hear your recovery is going well. Please continue to share your experiences so us future HT's (2/22 - Dr. Feller) can learn from them.