Day 5 — Recovery Day 4 | Tuesday, August 4, 2026
“Hello, checking in. It’s Eric Hansen, coming to you live from the house that the iKnee built, here from Recovery Journal HQ. This is day four of recovery, Tuesday, August 4th, and I’ve had a good day. I was able to walk up the stairs last night using the technique our physical therapist showed me, so now I’ve got it down: lead up with your good, non-surgical leg, and lead down with the surgical leg (the new leg). It makes a big difference. I got upstairs and had a great night’s sleep.
I was up using the bathroom fairly often, every hour or hour and a half. I also went to Maryum’s office and got a full round of her IV treatment protocol (curcumin, NAD, and vitamin B12). We talked about peptides and a few other options, but I think I’m going to hold off on any peptide injections until Dr. Woodson clears it. This is his surgical site, and I want to make sure everything’s cleared before I try anything new.
Peptides, red-light therapy, pulse tables are all great ideas, also another one I am appreciate is the oxygen chamber. I just can’t do the hyperbaric chambers myself because it feels a little too much like being buried alive for my taste, so that one’s out for me.
I did physical therapy again today and I’m keeping the leg elevated with ice. My upper leg swelled up quite a bit again; everything above the knee really hurts. The knee itself doesn’t really hurt, and the ligaments around it don’t either. It’s the tendons and muscle, mostly the quadriceps, that get swollen and sore.
The therapy table I ordered arrived yesterday, so thankfully I got to use it today. I also ordered a long compression sock that comes all the way up to the thigh, and I am hoping that keeps the swelling down (edema management), as they call it in the business. I should get that tomorrow, and I’m excited about it. Good day today overall! I did all my stretches, my exercises, the heel-toe walk. I feel like I’m making real progress.
Other than that, another good day. My thigh was very swollen, so I’ve got to stay on top of the edema. Icing, elevating, and running through all the stretches with little exercises that come with iKnee rehab. I’m excited to be part of this process. When I feel pain now, it’s a different kind of pain. I can’t quite describe it, but it’s not that bone-on-bone pain anymore. It’s the pain of rehab.
It’s a privilege to be the person going through this and really understanding it. It’s so much more about the musculature and the surrounding tissue than the joint itself, and I can genuinely feel the ligaments in the joint working.
It’s pretty cool. I’m excited for what’s next. I’ll keep doing these every day, and I’ll talk to you again tomorrow night. Bye-bye.”
– Eric Hansen (iKnee Patient One)
For more information about the iKnee, check out iorthopedicsinc.com.