Day 3 — Recovery Day 2 | Sunday, August 2, 2026

“Hello all, this is Day 3, or really Day 2 out from surgery. What’s nice is that every date in August lines up with my days of recovery, so today, August 2nd, marks two days since surgery.

Today wasn’t as easy as the last two days. On the day of surgery, I was able to get up the stairs and sleep in my own bed, then come back down the next morning, which was tough but manageable. Last night, going up the stairs was very difficult, and this morning, I honestly don’t know how I got back down — it was extremely difficult and painful. So tonight, I’m going to sleep on the couch instead of heading back upstairs.

Talking to Clint, our physical therapist, he said to just keep the leg happy — don’t get the tissue angry. So I’ll sleep on the couch and go from there. I did stick to the exercise circuit he laid out for me: ankle pumps; the heel prop, which feels like it’s hyperextending the knee even though it’s really just working toward zero; quad sets, where you clench and hold the quad muscle — very painful right now; assisted walking with the walker using an exaggerated heel-to-toe strike, which is my favorite right now because you can feel all the tissue relax as you do it; and the active heel slide, where you bring your heel up toward your hip to help build up your flexion angle.

I’m working on elevation, ice, and the exercises. Today just wasn’t fun. It was pretty painful, and the swelling in my thigh is still pretty tight.

I took a nap in the middle of the day, and the swelling went down afterward thankfully. I am paying more attention to not letting that tissue get angry is key to the process.

One thing I noticed that I thought was really cool: Shannan took off my compression sock to wash it because of some leakage, and when she went to put it back on, she had to work it back and forth up my calf to get it into place. As she did, I could actually feel my ACL and PCL working — the natural motion of the knee joint moving back and forth under the pressure she was applying. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling, but it was a great one, knowing I could feel my own natural anatomy functioning right after knee surgery.

I found that really interesting. With a total knee replacement, you typically don’t have those ligaments anymore. There are some PCL-sparing designs, but usually you lose that. So, feeling my ACL and PCL holding my knee together, healthy enough to allow real, natural movement between the tibia and femur, was a genuinely good feeling.

So that’s what I noticed today. I’ll sleep on the couch tonight and check in again tomorrow to see how things go. Clint’s coming tomorrow at 10:30 for physical therapy, and we’ll go from there. I’m staying on my meds and on the right schedule. I’m not feeling a ton of pain, so I may be able to start easing off the meds soon. Whether that’s the medicine working or the knee healing, I’m not sure yet. Talk to you guys tomorrow night.”

– Eric Hansen (iKnee Patient One)

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