Oh we can definitely see the difference Becca. You looking better and better every day. I noticed that you seem to be tilting your head to the left ever so slightly in all three pictures. Maybe that has something to do with the unevenness? Sit up straight and tall girl.

Hugs,
Donica.

Quote from: scrambledeggs on October 12, 2018, 10:24:37 AM
Hi Becca!


Looking great! Thanks so much for sharing your photos and experience!

I have a consult with Dr Z coming up in a few weeks. Do you know how far he was able to advance your scalp? Was there any option to get hair transplants before surgery? And it's hard to tell from the pictures but it looks like they couldn't advance it as far on the sides. Is that true?

Anyway I'm super hyped now because I think we have similar foreheads and your results look amazing! Can't wait to see you when you're all healed!

scalp advancement was half an inch centrally.  He won't promise more than that.  It will vary by person.  My hairline was not even to begin with.  he pulled it as far forward as he could. 

Think about whether you want it or not.  It's not without risks.  It can leave the top of your head numb. Some people get very bad hair loss after. The cost though as part of my surgery was less than it would have cost for another half inch of transplants

They suggest doing hair transplants 9 months or more after surgery.  Your incision needs to completely heal.  And you'll have hair loss after surgery that takes 6-9 months to recover from.  I think the rate at his clinic is $4.50 per transplant.  Dr Z say that I will need 2000 transplants to correct my hair line. 

I will probably not do the hair transplants for another two years.  I am planning on GCS and breast augmentation over the next 18 months.  And FFS left me broke.  LOL

Quote from: Donica on October 12, 2018, 12:06:25 PM
Oh we can definitely see the difference Becca. You looking better and better every day. I noticed that you seem to be tilting your head to the left ever so slightly in all three pictures. Maybe that has something to do with the unevenness? Sit up straight and tall girl.

Hugs,
Donica.

I think the head tilt is due to holding the camera with my right hand.

Six Days (left), 14 Days (top right), 21 Days (bottom right)

I've worn my hair short or shaved it for the past 15+ years.  This is the longest it's been since I was 30 years old

Here is a side by side of me the morning of the surgery and me 21 days after

very aggressive and feminizing results. You look like a different person. Dr Z has improved his nose work. Your nose looks great as well as everything else

Quote from: Becca Kay on October 12, 2018, 01:11:42 PM
scalp advancement was half an inch centrally.  He won't promise more than that.  It will vary by person.  My hairline was not even to begin with.  he pulled it as far forward as he could. 

Think about whether you want it or not.  It's not without risks.  It can leave the top of your head numb. Some people get very bad hair loss after. The cost though as part of my surgery was less than it would have cost for another half inch of transplants

They suggest doing hair transplants 9 months or more after surgery.  Your incision needs to completely heal.  And you'll have hair loss after surgery that takes 6-9 months to recover from.  I think the rate at his clinic is $4.50 per transplant.  Dr Z say that I will need 2000 transplants to correct my hair line. 

I will probably not do the hair transplants for another two years.  I am planning on GCS and breast augmentation over the next 18 months.  And FFS left me broke.  LOL

Thanks for answering.  I will definitely reconsider advancement knowing that.

Did you see any hairline recovery from HRT? My hope is that some of mine will come back once I initiate hormones and finasteride. Right now I would say I have a Norwood Type 2 (M shape). I have lots of little baby hairs after using Minoxodil for a month so I'm hoping they'll start to mature once DHT is out of the picture.

Quote from: scrambledeggs on October 12, 2018, 02:53:02 PM
Thanks for answering.  I will definitely reconsider advancement knowing that.

Did you see any hairline recovery from HRT? My hope is that some of mine will come back once I initiate hormones and finasteride. Right now I would say I have a Norwood Type 2 (M shape). I have lots of little baby hairs after using Minoxodil for a month so I'm hoping they'll start to mature once DHT is out of the picture.

i had a decade of hair loss before HRT.  I had very modest regrowth at my crown, which had a one and a half inch diameter bald spot.  that spot is barely half an inch in diameter now.  But the regrowth is very thin. 

I had a little bit of regrowth along my hairline, but not much.  I think a had a tiny bit of regrowth on the top of my head, which is thin.

I think that if i'd started HRT at 40 and not 47 I would not need hair transplants. 

I don't use anything else specifically for scalp regrowth.  I tried minoxidil in my late 30s for two years and it seemed to do nothing to stop or slow my hair loss. 

Quote from: Becca Kay on October 12, 2018, 01:23:22 PM
Here is a side by side of me the morning of the surgery and me 21 days after

holy smokes, looking good.. from my understanding the swelling takes around 1 year to completely disappear.. so give it time looking good.. like dam....

i did start at 39 on hrt myself, but my hair is very thin.. hoping it gets a little thicker... my plan is like all my surgeries over the next two years and hair transplants at the end to help thinking it a little.. who knows if they do that, i sure dont ...

Quote from: reborn on October 12, 2018, 02:41:54 PM
very aggressive and feminizing results. You look like a different person. Dr Z has improved his nose work. Your nose looks great as well as everything else

my nose looked amazing when he took off the splint a week after surgery.  I literally cried.  I couldn't believe it.  But within 30 minutes it just kind of ballooned and swelled.

It's been quite swollen ever since.  and the swelling is uneven.  more on the left side of my nose.  Up close it looks odd.  He warned me that it will take 6months to a year before I see what it will eventually look like.   

A friend of mine went to Dr Z 5 years ago and told me that her nose looked pretty bad for almost a year, with her nostrils shaped and sized differentlly.  And then all of a sudden around 12 months the last of the inflammation cleared up and it just kind of settled down.  Now her nose looks very good.

He did a LOT of work on my nose and nasal cavity.  I had a very bad deviated septum and nasal polyps.  Very large nostrils.  I think he spent more than an hour of additional time on my nose alone.  My surgery was 11 hours long

here are some photos from the first 72 hours after my surgery.  These were taken 19-21 days ago.  I had the 72hr nursing service which cost approx $2k but is well worth it.  Both the nurses were amazing and had a lot of experience tending to Dr Z's patients.  My sister was there with me and tended to me for 3 days after that.  But there is no way she could have taken care of me the first 72 hours. 

this is one day after surgery when my dressings were changed




Later the second day and early the Third day



This is Day three when my nurse took the bandages off, washed my hair, etc.  It wasn't until the third day that I could open both eyes. 

Quote from: Becca Kay on October 12, 2018, 03:07:09 PM
i had a decade of hair loss before HRT.  I had very modest regrowth at my crown, which had a one and a half inch diameter bald spot.  that spot is barely half an inch in diameter now.  But the regrowth is very thin. 

I had a little bit of regrowth along my hairline, but not much.  I think a had a tiny bit of regrowth on the top of my head, which is thin.

I think that if i'd started HRT at 40 and not 47 I would not need hair transplants. 

I don't use anything else specifically for scalp regrowth.  I tried minoxidil in my late 30s for two years and it seemed to do nothing to stop or slow my hair loss.

So do you plan to let your hair keep growing out until you can get transplants? Won't it grow back unevenly if you do?

I'm trying to figure out the best plan of action so I can go into my consult prepared.

Quote from: scrambledeggs on October 12, 2018, 03:47:15 PM
So do you plan to let your hair keep growing out until you can get transplants? Won't it grow back unevenly if you do?

I'm trying to figure out the best plan of action so I can go into my consult prepared.

I am going to grow it out so that I can eventually pull it into a pony tail.  If I do that and wear at headband my receded hairline wouldn't be visible.  I want to be able to do that occasionally so I can swim, exercise, etc, without a wig.

When I get transplants I'll have a strip removed from the back of my head.  They'll shave that area.  And I won't be able to cover the transplanted area for months later.  So I hope that having my hair longer two years from now will at least allow me to look OK when I go through it. 

Thank you so much for posting your FFS journey Becca. It has been an amazing journey indeed. I now know what to expect. I would be interested in how/where you found the 72 hour nursing care? I think I will be doing the same. I have been looking online for post-op care with little success. You are looking fabulous girl.

Hugs,
Donica. 

Quote from: Donica on October 12, 2018, 04:08:41 PM
Thank you so much for posting your FFS journey Becca. It has been an amazing journey indeed. I now know what to expect. I would be interested in how/where you found the 72 hour nursing care? I think I will be doing the same. I have been looking online for post-op care with little success. You are looking fabulous girl.

Hugs,
Donica.

The nursing service is scheduled through The Zukowski Clinic.  The nurses are contractors who work with Dr Z specifically for this.  It's part of the FFS package but billed separately

Becca,

Your latest image comparing now to before really shows a big difference before you looked good, but after you looked really good and totally feminine.

You are recovering great [emoji4]

Nicole

You look great!    What a change.  Amazing.

I also appreciate the graphic reality of the FFS.  You are so strong and inspiring!

Hugs

Karen

this past week the sutures finally started popping out of my forehead incision.  I pulled out five or six cotton strings about a centimeter long each.  IN addition to cotton dissolving sutures Dr Z threaded a single nylon suture the entire length of the incision. 

Up until day 6 there were three inches of extra nylon hanging out of each side of my head. Dr Z snipped the extra off at my scalp on the last day i was in Chicago. 

Like the cotton sutures I"m supposed to pull the nylong out bit by bit if it comes to the surface and cut it close to my skin if it won't budge more.

It's kind of icky.  The cotton sutures never come out all in one piece.  Most of the time I have to tug them out a little bit at a time and clip them.   Then wait for the rest to pop out.

I assume he uses these sutures instead of staples  (for the forehead) because it would require a follow up visit, and most of his patients don't live anywhere near the clinic

I would almost have rather had to go in and have sutures removed than to deal with this.  It's yucky and each incision doesn't really close up entirely until all the sutures have been pulled out or completely dissolve

Oh my Becca! I had no idea you had to do that on your own. Isn't there another doctor you can have take care of that for you?

Quote from: Donica on October 15, 2018, 08:26:15 AM
Oh my Becca! I had no idea you had to do that on your own. Isn't there another doctor you can have take care of that for you?

he uses individual sutures that dissolve on their own.  They can't be pulled out until the knot below the surface dissolves.  Some of them dissolve completely below the skin and you never see them. These are like the sutures that are used internally. There's nothing another doctor can do.   

some people react to these sutures differently than others.  It's not going quite as easily for me than i think it does for some people.  They seem to be dissolving in me, but very slowly.  I've talked to people who said that within two weeks they were all out.  I'm at almost 4 weeks and still have partially open incisions because these sutures are still dissolving