Day 7
December 17 2012
I slept last night with only the usual pillow after attending family dinner in Yuen Long. It was good fellowship with nearly 20 family members from the side of my wife.
I was disturbed in sleep slightly, with itchy feelings at the donor site. I let loose myself, only to rise at 8 am. I treaded on the Cross Trainer again for 20 minutes, took a shower and washed my hair. I then returned to the hospital office to see how big the pile of waiting documents and work would be. It turned out to be a long day.
Day 8
December 18 2012
I was scheduled to attend physical training class in the Jockey Club. I told my trainer Mr Calson Leung that I had hair transplant the Monday before, and I was supposed to have moderate activity in this first postoperative session. I did an hour of training with my wife together that day, and took a picture with him outside the gym.
Picture with Trainer Calson outside of gym
By the way, the reader might notice that I had a 5-toe shoewear, which might improve grip on ground. I liked it also because it was very thin and easy to carry inside my backpack for work.
On the same day, I had follow-up by Peter. He explained to me that it was expected that I had itchiness on the scalp, and it would be especially significant after exercise. He told me once more his way to tansplant hair. The transplanted hair would grow another 1 or 2 cm, and then about 2/3 of hair transplanted would fall off when some hair follicle went into a resting phase. Hair would grow back after half to 3/4 year. At times a small nodule might be observed on hair which would fall off, but it was within expectation.
Peter prescribed me a drug Minoxidil, which would be applied on scalp skin twice a day. This strength of 2% would be used for about a month and then continued at 5% unless allergy complicated in. Between 2 to 4 puffs were deposited on scalp each time. The drug was used to improve vascularity of scalp alongside oral Propecia which I was taking.
Minoxidil 2% spray application on scalp, 2 times a day
Minoxidil manufacturer information P.1
minoxidil manufacturer information P.2
It was a usually packed day at work. In the afternoon I attended a meeting in the Health Panel of the Legislative Council on behalf of our hospital. I gave a 3 minute talk about our view about monitoring of private hospitals. We believed that it was appropriate for the society to monitor private hospitals, but we did not favour micro-monitoring. Hopefully our views were understood by government officials, legislative councillors and the lay public.
Day 9
On the next day (December 19), I had a very long day handling hospital matter, chaired meetings and conducted investigations for the Hospital to resolve issues. I attended the Christmas party of my Rotary Club in Garden Room of Peninsula Hotel. It was a lovely evening, with good fellowship in a venue delivering good food and spectacular view of Hong Kong.
Day 10
It was Thursday and physical training again. Calson took me and my wife through exercises. They included body weight exercises, dumb-bell use, and assisted chin-ups. In fact, I experienced a bit of upper back muscle fatigue and needed some further stretching after the chin-ups.
The last exercise Calson prescribed was interesting. He asked us to hop on one foot for 30 seconds, and then stand on that single foot with eyes closed for 30 seconds. It was meant to train both the muscles and propioception. If you try this out, please find something you can take support to avoid falling over. Enjoy.
According to some myth, the next day would be end of the world or civilization. Readers and I might pray together that we shall continue with the blog the next day.
Day 11
The world has not stopped. I had a long day of work and also a family dinner in relation to Winter Solstice. I took 30 minutes of exercise at home as well.
Writing about Winter Solstice and trying to make sure I spelt it right, I found information a doctor/government official in old China called 張仲景, author to 傷寒雜病論，and his saying ：“進則救世，退則救民；不能為良相，亦當為良醫。” meaning ‘Step forward and save the society, continue to save people even with stepping backward. Be a good doctor even if one cannot make a good minister.’ How many of us can do that? He is also famous for making a type of mutton dumplings 嬌耳eaten in the festival.
Connie of Corporate Communications came to my office, and asked her teammate to take some pictures of me and my head!
At work in Office on 9/F of Union Hospital. Note my tools: touchscreen monitor and automatic time-setting watch.
View to recipient site at social distance
Close-up view to recipient site
Donor site on Dec 21, shown with hair pushed aside. Healthy and recovered.
December 22 & 23
Everything went the same when I woke up on December 22 and the world continued. Obama was still handling American situations the same. Media in HK continued to report matters about the local and central government in the same way. I continued to prepare for my race in February under a bit of anxiety the same way, and spent nearly 90 minutes on my cross trainer.
December 23 was another church day. On this day 2 brothers got baptized. As for my hair, it was not a special day. I have decided to restart my aspirin for thrombosis prophylaxis. So everything is back to normal.
December 24
On Christmas eve I attended the gym to gear up my exercise preparation. I went on the treadmill for nearly 4 hours and I sweated a lot. I went so tired that I finally could not raise my legs. Admittedly I was a bit worried whether I could finish 42 Km in February.
At the time of shower and washing my hair, I found that some short hair fell off. There was a white or grey particle on each hair fallen off. Peter had told me that it was expected some time after the hair transplant, in relation to hair follicles fallen resting. Peter told me that the hair will grow back over the next few months. Still, I confess a bit of anxiety, although I understand the mechanism, me being a patient instead of a doctor this time.
Short and thin hair which fell off, together with attahed dry skin, shown on my Blackberry.
December 25
My church organized an outgoing to Wong Shek ferry pier.
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