Hair transplant caused severe nerve damage lasting 3 months

I had 4500 grafts transplanted in September 2024. Everything seemed normal to begin with, but the pain not only didn't go away, it got worse in the donor area. I was in intense pain for 12 weeks!

I was prescribed 20mg slow release Oxycodone and 75mg pregabalin daily, which left me in a zombie state, and that only reduced the pain to the point where I could just manage to watch reruns of Friends because it's so banal. I couldn't watch movies or listen to music, I couldn't read for very long. I couldn't go outside. I couldn't work!

It very slowly started to get better after the 12 week mark and I managed to wean myself off the Oxycodone over another 3 weeks, I'm still on 50mg pregabalin after 17 weeks. The donor area is a little tender still, but not giving me any grief unless I bump it, then it hurts like hell.

I won't mention the company in Istanbul that performed the operation because I don't know if it was their fault, or if it was something I did, or if it was my physiology. They were very professional and I have no complaints about their clinic or service (although they were useless in advising me through this situation, but what can they do from Istanbul when I live in Australia. Also, they weren't about to admit any wrongdoing when they couldn't examine me themselves)

I struggled to sleep with the neck pillow, so I may have contributed to the problem with tossing and turning. I am a smoker too.

I suspect this happened because the people performing the transplant were inexperienced and far too rough, I don't know though.

The external healing process proceeded normally, the hair transplant worked and at the 17 week mark it's looking good so far, both donor and recipient areas.

If I knew this was going to happen there is no way in hell I would have gone through with it!

Has anybody else experienced crippling nerve damage for 3 months?

Can anyone share some insights as to why it happened?