The Procedure (Day 0)
It has happened! I am now back home resting and recovering from my FUE procedure. I can now see why I don’t remember much about my procedure 4 years ago — it’s because of all the sedatives!
First of all, I want to start by saying how amazing all the staff at Sante Medical are. I was even speaking with one of them after we were all done, and she let me know that they have been working together for 6 years and that the senior surgical assistant has actually been working with Dr. Bobby for over 10 years! This is great proof that they’re all happy and love their jobs, and it shows. If anyone is reading this and is considering Calgary for an FUE transplant, I can highly recommend Sante Medical thus far.
I arrived at the clinic at 8 am, and there was someone already waiting for me to get started. The first step was to fill out some consent forms about COVID-19 and the procedure itself. Pretty normal. Then I got into the surgical gown and sat on the chair where Dr. Bobby examined me in my initial consultation. I am sad to say that this is where the shaving took place—lots and lots of shaving. The last time my hair was short (not even fully shaved) was when I was in middle school and thought it would look good. Because of my face shape, I need to have at least medium-length hair. Unfortunately, in order for the robot to get good reads, Dr. Bobby had to shave pretty much all the back and sides of my head. He did leave most of the top intact, though, although he also shaved just a bit at the front as well later (during the initial poking) so he could see it better.
Once the shaving was done, he used a sharpie to show the areas we would work on. This was when I started getting excited. He drew a great hairline and even some areas on the sides, which I don’t think got that much attention in my first procedure. We would focus on fixing my hairline and adding density to the front. Once that was done, we moved to the “surgery” room.
The first step was the toughest, and the one I will want to forget as soon as possible: the freezing! They did give me Valium to relax me and even had me hold a breathing tube with Pro-Nox. This really helped since the Pro-Nox basically got me pretty high momentarily while I was being poked. Even so, it was obviously still painful and not enjoyable. I remember that “Uptown Funk” was playing while the Dr. was working on the freezing. I know that song pretty well, so even though the process felt like it took a very long time because of the Pro-Nox, I was also conscious of the fact that it was just a few seconds because of the song. “Sorry” by Justin Bieber was next, followed by “Sugar” by Maroon 5. By then, we were already into the initial poking, and the laughing gas was already fading.
The initial poking is when the Dr. pokes the whole area that will be worked on. These are the holes where the grafts will eventually be placed. He would occasionally ask his assistant where he was at, and I remember her saying almost 800 and then 1,200. From our initial consultation, the Dr. estimated that we would need around 1,500 grafts. Spoiler alert, they ended up being close to 2,000, which means my head was poked over 6,000 times today (with the freezing, the initial poking, the extraction, the insertions, and all the freezing). Once the initial poking was done, it was time to move on to the robot, whom they affectionately call “Arty” (its real name is ARTAS), for the graft extraction.
The extraction felt like the longest and most uncomfortable part of the whole procedure. I didn’t have my cell phone with me and didn’t think to ask the time, but it was most likely 4 hours. The freezing and initial poking were likely done by 9 am, and the extraction was performed non-stop until we took a break for lunch at 1 pm. The reason it was uncomfortable is that the chair forces your legs to be folded the whole time. I think if you could lay on your stomach while the extraction happens (like at a massage table), it would not be so bad. They also had to press my head very firmly against the pillows, so my cheeks and eyebrows started to hurt after a while. When the robot works on the back of the head, your face is pressed against a circular pillow (again, like the ones at a massage table), but the material is plastic with foam. If this could be an actual pillow (like cloth with cotton filling), that would also make it much better. Then when the robot works on your sides, your head is pressed against a “flat” pillow, also made of plastic with foam. After a couple of hours, my face hurt and my legs really needed to be stretched. It was a relief every time my position needed to be re-adjusted, as I was able to rest my face for a few seconds and move my legs a little. I think the staff noticed I was uncomfortable, as in the end, they were telling me “just 20 more minutes” and then “just 10 more minutes!” It was an immense relief when that part was finally done! This part was not painful at all. I could tell the robot was extracting probably 2 grafts per second on bursts of 6 or so, but I didn’t feel anything. At a certain point, I started feeling some discomfort on the left-back of my head, so the staff just added a bit more freeze, and it was a done deal.
After the extraction, it was time for a relaxing lunch. I was able to choose what I wanted, so I went with a Mucho Burrito bowl! The staff ate together, and they had me eat alone in the consultation room. This was great because I really needed some time just to relax and be on my phone while I ate. Lunch lasted 30 minutes, and then we went back to the “surgery” room. It was now time to insert the grafts! Before we could get to that, they had me visit Arty for just 10–15 minutes for some final extractions, but since it was such a short visit, this one was not uncomfortable. I moved to the chair where they had performed the initial freezing and poking. The graft insertion is done manually (I thought Arty would be doing that as well) by the Dr.’s assistants. I am assuming they use the initial pokes made by the Dr. to place the grafts there. With this being my second procedure, I knew that some grafts have a single hair, some have two, and some have three. Interestingly, they started with the single-hair grafts at the front of the hairline, then went on to the two-hair grafts, and finally the three-hair grafts. I would have thought they would want the thicker grafts at the front, as they would hide the thinner ones, but it’s the other way around so it looks more natural. Each insertion felt as if someone had grabbed a single hair and tugged at it. When I told them about this, the Dr. gave me two Tylenol 3s. I continued to feel this tugging sensation throughout the process. It was not unbearable or anything, but I was surprised to be feeling anything at all. It did get a bit painful at a certain point, so they just added some freezing to the area, and it was back to being bearable. This process lasted around 2.5 hours. As I was sitting on a chair like at the dentist, I was not really uncomfortable at any point.
Once the insertion was over, the Dr. injected some saline solution to help with the swelling. One of his assistants also drew blood to get plasma for a PRP treatment. It is normal for clinics to do PRP right after an FUE procedure to help with the healing process and the success of the grafts. Of course, these were even more pokes! As I said, I was poked over 6,000 times today, all in all!
The end finally arrived, and all that was left was to listen to the post-op instructions and receive my post-op kit with saline solutions, my medicines, some gauze (just in case), and the instructions. My head was bandaged to protect the donor area. The grafts can’t be touched at all for the first 3 days, so the bandages don’t touch the grats. They also gave me a bandana to cover the grafts and the bandages. This is mostly so that the procedure is not as obvious to other people, as there may have been other patients at reception. I am scheduled to go for a follow-up appointment tomorrow, where they will show me how to wash my hair and remove the bandages, so I will need to wear the bandana for that as well.
All right, and now for a couple of pictures. Here is what my head looks right after I got home:
So yes, a bit swollen already, although the true swelling won’t really show until day 2 or 3. I hope it won’t be as bad as after my first procedure! Everything that is bandaged is shaved, so I’m not sure how it will look with just the very top having hair once the bandage is off. I am honestly very happy with how dense it looks! I think it’s going to look amazing once the results start showing. The staff were very happy with themselves as well. They kept saying stuff like “look at that hairline!” and “that looks gorgeous!” and stuff like that, and I don’t think they were faking it. I think they really were happy with how the procedure turned out. I took this picture a few minutes ago, so around 6 hours post-op:
Pretty much the same! Maybe a bit less red. I did receive my two neck pillows from Amazon today. The one I thought would probably be uncomfortable for sleeping definitely looks like that, but the other one looks much better, and I already took a nap using it. We’ll see how tonight goes. I will need to sleep with it for at least the first 3–5 days.
Well, that’s all I have for this entry, which will likely be the most exciting one! After this, I will be posting updates about the recovery, how I’m feeling, how everything’s looking, and then sporadic updates (probably monthly until the year mark).
As usual, if anyone is reading all of this, thank you! I hope this is useful somehow. I will post another update tomorrow!
