Discogram, cervical anterior adr surgery and my beard.

fuzzy · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2009, 06:40 PM

To all you guys who have had these procedures:

How far up the neck do they shave??? I have a life long beard and would rather no loose more then nessesary to accomplish the task. The discography place told all the way up to my chin. Really? That leaves me with friedly muttonchops and I will look terrible.

They don't make beard wigs! I will have to hide!

dshobbies · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2009, 08:11 PM

Surely there must be a way to pile your beard away from the surgical site... however I'm sure concerns involve a sterile environment.

I'd offer the comfort of 'it'll grow back' but I know how long it will take. I think the best advice I can offer is to dye your hair black or shave your head so no one recognizes you at all

for the next several years. At least you won't have to hide.

A friend, whose hair cascaded down to her waist for her entire adult life, lost it all to chemotherapy. Though she now looks great in short hair, she lost part of her identity. All humor and sarcasm aside, I understand this is more than the loss of hair.

Well, with this sacrifice, all I can say is this surgery had better damn well be successful!!!!

Dale

PS - you might ask them to wait until you're out to shave it off so you don't feel any of the cold steel on your virginal skin.

fuzzy · #3 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 08:39 PM

Thanks Dale,

My beard reaches down my neck (of cause). They would need to shave the surgical area plus a certain amount arround it to be able to secure the site. Question how much. The discography place writes in their instruction "shaven up to the shin. That seems to me much more then is nesessary, especially for just a disco. Also which side they could tell me that? They are stubborn and do not want to give me an answer other then they will not work on me if I show up incorrectly shaven!

One surgeon in Germany will only remove what is absolutely nesessary and I trust his judgment. Also no disco! But here in US it seems to be harder to get an answer other then Delamarters assistant saying "that beard will have to go". I don't know why it is but I have gotten more compassion in general in Europe it seems.

My neck will need to be fixed and my beard of cause will have to be secondary to that need. Maybe someone can still chime in on how much area tends to be taken up by the surgical prep.

jchebert1979 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-15-2009, 05:58 PM

Fuzzy,
What levels are being done? You can guestimate the area needed to be shaven by the corresponding disc level (especially if you have MRI's as a reference). For instance, my C5-6 disc is directly behind my adams apple. I just had C6-7 and C7-t1 done. The needle entry for c7-t1 was about a half inch above my collar bone and c6-7 was about a half inch above that. I would think that if you could pull your beard up, tie it back, and shave it uderneath it would not be as noticeable.

Maria · #5 (**permalink**) 08-17-2009, 05:58 PM

I wonder if a person was a sikh (?) and didn't want to shave his beard for religious purposes and how this position would be handled..

I'm sure some accomadations are made at times while I guess there are those hard and fast rules of preparation for procedures and surgical approach.

I too thought of the tying up of your beard so that the area of the levels needed for testing could be approached and yet the bulk of the beard salvaged.

I like my hair as well and would have a difficult time with it being shaved off but if it were absolutely necessary for some reason I'd go long w/or at least a partial shaving of the necessary area to be accessed.

fuzzy · #6 (**permalink**) 08-18-2009, 06:01 PM

I like to be clear that regardless of faith my health comes first. I am sure that a Sikh that needed neck surgery would feel the same. But on the other hand only what is nessesary. I do object to those who tell me that all has to come off or they won't work on me rather then instruct me what the actual working area needs to be. The surgeon I am leaning towards will only remove what is nessesary just before the procedure and yes it can be draped out of the way that was done at the lumbar surgery and the nurses had fun (in Germany...).

The levels are C3/4/5. 2 Levels.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far.

Gil Denis · #7 (**permalink**) 08-19-2009, 03:41 AM

Hi Fuzzey

If you shaved it off ,

you would look younger

cooler in the summer,colder in the winter.

less hair in the shower

a savings on shampoo

you would weight would be less.

It is you do what you need to do.

A barber once told me "you can never get a bad hair cut, It will grow back"

All The Best

Gil

Maria · #8 (**permalink**) 08-20-2009, 02:12 AM

I have very kinky naturally curly hair. It took forever to get it to grow out long~ years I think. After a while I started wearing it up. It started to get gray back about when I was in my late 40s-50 y.o. so I started getting it highlighted with blonde (natural color dark brown).

2 years ago I felt like I was paying too much for this process so I had a *friend of a friend* color my hair. She fried it. I mean it damaged the hair so badly I had to get my hair cut really short~ and couldn't highlight it for about 6 months or more.

Oddly enough many people said they liked my hair shorter better than longer and that I looked younger (yeah sure..) tho I guess I wouldn't have changed it if that hadn't happened so it was one way that *the hairstyle change* came about for me.

Well... I've kept my hair on the shorter side ever since. I'd like to let it grow again but now I just can't get over that really bad hair hump that one goes thru with my kind of hair plus coloring and growing out/longer.

Truly it's much easier to deal with this way~ takes far less time to dry

Good luck Fuzzy ~ hope it all works out.

fuzzy · #9 (**permalink**) 08-20-2009, 04:12 AM

Thanks Maria and Gil!

The beard is 30+ inches long and at 8 inches a year that would be 4 years in a perfect world to grow it back. The way it is now its quite manageable. Its braids easily, it air dries in 30 seconds. My face feels good with no bumps or ingrown hairs. (shaving is really irritating). No problem to make it neat. Hairspray and moustache wax. Even for corporate office visits. I will never ever uses a shaver. I don't care for the trim thing or barbers who always do something of their own. So it will have to grow again and it does go through some aweful stages where is sweeps sideways and I look like a bum. Of cause "I look older" but whats wrong with that? It gets me senior discounts, LOL. The Santa jobs are priceless.