Day 2 — Recovery Day 1 | Saturday, August 1, 2026

“All right — iKnee post-op recovery log. This is day one out of the case, Saturday, August 1st. The first day was great; this second day, the first full day out of the case, is when I could really feel the pain start to come out.

I think the nerve block is releasing and the epidural is subsiding, just like they said it would. I’ve been taking Journavx, a new pain medication I really like — it’s not an opioid or an NSAID. I’m also still taking Percocet, and I’ve started taking Aspirin twice a day. So we’re off and running. I’m excited — we had our first visit from our physical therapist, Clint Harwick, who came out to see us. Clint’s an ex-athlete, a really nice guy, and very knowledgeable.

My vitals to start: blood pressure of 140 over 80, and a range of motion (ROM) of -25 degrees on extension and 70 degrees on flexion.

Clint walked me through some fundamental exercises, and it turns out the sequence you do them in really matters — I’d never thought of it that way. It’s about releasing the tissue the right way, and the biggest thing he told me was, “don’t push this, take your time.”

He said to give it at least five days before I’ll see any real progress in his measurements. He’ll come out three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — and he came out today, Saturday, as well, which was great.

Pain is coming — it’s there. It’s not really the knee joint, though; it’s the quadriceps muscle above it. Watching the intraoperative video, you can see how much they moved the leg back and forth to confirm the range of motion was where they wanted it.

My whole thigh is really tight and swollen. I’m wearing compression socks, doing elevation, icing, and working through my exercises — heel-toe walks, ankle pumps, quad set squeezes where you hold the thigh muscle, and something called a heel-prop extension. That last one isn’t the most fun — you prop a pillow under your heel and it creates something close to a hyperextension feeling in the knee. I know it’s not actually hyperextending since I’m still at -25 on extension, but it sure feels that way. I can definitely feel it in the back of the knee.

Emotionally, I feel great. I’m getting a lot of emails, texts, and phone calls, and I’m still just trying to process what actually happened yesterday. I call it being “in the ether” — still kind of floating in the feeling of what just happened. It’s pretty incredible, and I’m still in that state.

I definitely want to shift into focusing on the rehab and documenting all of it, so we know exactly how this thing performs — and so Dr. Woodson can compare it to how a total knee typically recovers. The meds are dialed in, I’ll stay on those. For diet, I’m on an XR nutrition program that Dr. Woodson set me up with, and I’ll stick with that, though I don’t have much of an appetite right now.

Going up the stairs last night was not fun — a hard challenge. Coming down this morning was even worse. I can feel the pain, and I can feel the wave of it building, so I’ll just keep going today and see where it takes me.

We also had an IV visit today — Maryum came out with a few IVs: NAD, curcumin, B12, and a few other things to help the process along. I feel a little groggy, maybe from the meds, but I’ll do this every day, and I’ll talk to you again later today.”

– Eric Hansen (iKnee Patient One)

For more information about the iKnee, check out iorthopedicsinc.com.