Day of Surgery

Day of surgery.
I arrive at 7:30am.
Staff is friendly and as we already had the financials buttoned up, we walked into a waiting room where they gave me a lunch selection for later.

Then they had me take off my button up shirt and put on a gown.
They gave me 20 mg of Valium because I was intensely nervous.
They told me the process would consist of removing follicles from the back of my head, the donor region, and placing them in the target balding areas.
I didn't really deeply examine the depth of what that meant.
I laid face down on the chair and they buzzed a small spot.
They gave me 2 dozen injections of a local anesthetic so it wouldn't hurt.
Then the doctor sliced into the back of my shaved head and removed a section of skin containing my hair grafts.  It felt awkward, not painful at all.  It sounded like cutting carpet with a razor blade.
I didn't enjoy the anxiety I still felt at this time.

Then the doctor began to slice into my forehead, almost annoyingly, around 1200 times.
Then in the back of my head around 1400 times.
As he sliced, it started to hurt, he stopped, then the needles for anesthesia began.
He continued.
As he did this, 3 techs began dissecting my grafts to place the follicles  into my head.
I like to think of them as separating seeds to bury in the garden of my forehead.
They had to painstakingly insert with forceps, each follicle into my head.
From roughly 9am until 6pm, barely stopping for lunch and a bathroom break, they persisted putting exactly 2616 follicles into my head.
It's a tender process that is irritating.  It doesn't hurt so much as sting.
Keep in mind, I'm on Valium, ibuprofen, and have lots of anesthesia at this time.
The staff were very friendly and warm.  The doctor was delightful but did not have the bulk of the tasks to perform. His job was quick and he left the task to the techs who deliberated over my head all day.
I was accommodated often with juice and crackers, cable and DVDs that were accessible the whole time.
They couldn't have been nicer.
I dozed in and out of consciousness throughout the time.
When it was over, they dressed me and instructed me how to take care of it and what medicines that I'd need to take.
I was delirious, but they offered me, a standard offering, a complimentary hair wash the next day and told me that Everything was clearly marked in their black bag that they went over.
To my chagrin, I didn't have to drive home alone.  Wife and children had surprised me and taken me home.
I'd recommend that to anyone else who may do this.