The Day Before…
After what oddly felt like both a long and a short time, it is now the night before my FUE procedure! I am a bit nervous, but it helps that I have had one before, so I sort of know what to expect. To be honest, the details of the day of my first procedure are blurry, and I don’t remember exactly what happened on days 1, 3, 5, etc. I just remember that I was quite swollen for a few days. It is important to note that I was already out and about without a hat after about a month; however, the main difference is that I did not have such a large area shaved last time. The donor area could be covered by the hair above, and the recipient area was not shaved, of course, so it generally looked normal until the little hairs started to grow. This time, I have been warned that a large area on the back and the sides will be shaved to help the robot. I fully intend on wearing a wig for maybe a few weeks while my hair grows out a bit.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading about pre and post-op care. First of all, I stopped taking my daily Finasteride dose yesterday, as the clinic said I should do so 2 days before the procedure. Second, I purchased a couple of neck pillows from Amazon in preparation for the first few days. I am a side sleeper, and I will need to sleep on my back with my head elevated for the first 5–7 days. I bought two pillows because, on second thought, the first one I bought may not be comfortable for sleeping on a bed. Maybe on a plane but not a bed. The second one I bought before writing this will probably be better. I will write about what worked best when the time comes. Third, I arranged to be out of the “office” tomorrow and Friday. This will give me a full 3 days to do some recovering. I also booked off my Monday (so I don’t have any meetings), just in case. Since I won’t be able to wear hats or a wig for 7–10 days, I will ask my Supervisor to allow me to be off-camera for meetings during that first week. This is the blessing/advantage to doing this during the pandemic: I can keep working from home and only ask for a couple of days off, as opposed to a couple of weeks. If I wanted to, I could even work on Friday, but I did want a few days just to relax and recover.
Speaking of Finasteride, I am very happy to report that I haven’t noticed any side effects, thank God! I know a lot of people out there share horror stories about their side effects immediately after starting taking Finasteride, which is one of the reasons I waited so long to start taking it myself. The only thing, and keep in mind that this may well be psychological, is that I think my semen is a bit more watery than usual, but again, it could just be my mind on the lookout for side effects. I would prefer to consider myself one of the many people who won’t have side effects apart from restoring their hair!
My posts will likely get more frequent now, as I will want to keep a regular log of my FUE experience. I wanted to do this after my first procedure, but I never got into it, so I want to make myself do it this time. I will write tomorrow to talk about the procedure itself. If anyone is reading this, thank you, and wish me luck!
