36 Years Old Hair Transplant Turkey 4600 Grafts

After my work colleague and his 3 friends had their hair transplants in Turkey I decided it was my turn. They used Dr Yetkin Bayer with great results so thats who I used as well.
After initially organising a date, sending flight details and some personal information the wait was on.
My surgery was booked on the 7th June 2017. I was greeted at Ataturk airport and taken to a driver out the front of the airport. After a little bit of confusion I was first taken to the clinic but I thought I was going to the hotel. I was greeted by a really nice English speaker named Tawfiq. He explained that I was there for my pre op which included a questionnaire, consultation with Dr Yetkin and blood taken which would be used the next day as plasma injections. Dr Yetkin explained that they would only be able to cover 70% of my baldness this time. I could go back after 12 months for another transplant but coming from Australia it is a long way. I paid a deposit of half the cost of my treatment which was $1500USD in total.
I was then driven to our hotel. I had personally booked the Double tree hotel in Piyaplaesa- this hotel is only 10 minutes from the medical centre but means you are quite a far way from the town centre. If I was to go back I would definitely book a hotel in the city centre so I could walk to restaurants, stores etc
My brother had joined me as well as he was also having surgery at the same time as me.
We were collected from the hotel at 11am. I will give a step by step of the experience to keep it simple:
1- Met with Dr Yetkin who designed new hair line
2- given a relaxant pill (not sure what it was- not very strong)
3- head is completely shaved to almost a zero
4- you are face down on a massage style table and anaesthetic needles are injected into the back and sides of your skull. Yes the injections hurt. They are really painful but its only a few minutes. Maybe 5 minutes in total. They use as many needles as needed until you cannot feel a needle prick anymore. Deep breathing helps slightly.
5- the donor follicles are removed. As you are face down you can't see anything taking place. There was the sound of a very quiet sander and then the sensation of tugging. No pain whatsoever but just the sensation of someone pulling at your head. This was the follicles being removed. From memory that process took about 2.5 hours.
6-you then lay on your back and they inject the front and top of your skull with more anaesthetic injections. Yes again they are painful but its only for a few minutes. The numbing effect is instant. They also put a drip into your arm for antibiotics.
7- Dr Yetkin returns and spent about 35minutes opening the canals. He is amazingly fast and such an expert in what he does.
8-the follicles are now planted by 3 people. Its hard to know if its the same people as they place a light cloth over your eyes so you don't get blinded by the surgical lights. This is a long process of about 3 hours. But its really relaxing just laying there hearing them chat quietly amongst themselves. I drifted in and out of sleep during this process.
9- they then injected my plasma into my skull which there was no pain due to my skull already being completely numb.
10- the donor area is wrapped up in bandages and you are then greeted by your English translator who had a beautiful chicken kebab and drink waiting. Thats the first time to eat since breakfast. Tawfiq explained our post surgery treatment and gives you antibiotics, pain killers and aspirin to take daily.
In total it must have been about 6.5hours process from arrival to getting back to the hotel which was a huge amount better than peoples comments online saying up to 12 hours!!
The next day was complete rest. We chilled out at the hotel that day and night. Sleeping was a bit hard as you had to sleep with a neck pillow on your back (pretty hard for a side sleeper) but with the amount of drugs I slept for 6.5hours solid.
The following day we returned back to the clinic where we met with Dr Yetkin and a new English translator named Majd. A nurse applies some Nivea cream to the transplanted hairs. I believe this is to soften the scabs and help soften the scalp. This is applied every day for the first 3 days for 20 minutes and then for 45 minutes every day until day 14. The bandages were removed and the entire head is washed by another nurse.
There isn't a huge amount of pain in the few days after but here is where I will fill you in on what they don't tell you.
1- Once you finish the drugs given you will be in a massive amount of pain at night time. I went to my local chemist and got the strongest drugs they could give me. I was using these an hour before bed plus using 2 paracetamol with 1 ibuprofen every 3-4 hours during the day. The pain is quite uncomfortable for about 7-8 days and was waking me up every few hours.
2- I am now 4 weeks exactly to the day since surgery and the top of my skull is still very numb. Its slowly getting more sensation as each day goes by but they don't mention how long this numbness would last. Having my brother going through the same issues made it a little more reassuring for me.
They are the only 2 things so far I could speak negatively of.
I have healed well with no infections or major sores and I am currently at the shedding stage.
Due to the fact they couldn't cover 100% of my baldness I have now been using propecia and regain to encourage hair growth at the crown. I will review this after 12 months and decide then if I will go back for surgery for a second transplant.
I selected at this stage that I'm "unsure" if its worth it only because I am so early into the process that I will decide in 11 months if it was worth it or not but I can say I am so happy I have had it done and feeling really hopeful for a good result. I will post again at 6 months and 12 months.

Starting to see some growth now. Not sure if it's from propecia and minoxidil or transplant. Either way I'm happy so far with how things are progressing

Initially I wasn't going to post monthly but for my own personal journal I've decided to post a few pics each month so I can compare the difference.
I'm really happy so far. I've still got a very long way to go and sometimes it's easy to become impatient but that's when I look at people's photos here and realise how much changes from 6months to 12 months and even from 12months to 18months.