Day 1 — Surgery Day | Friday, July 31, 2026

“It’s 11:59 PM on Friday, July 31st — the day of my surgery — and here’s the weird thing: I can’t sleep. I slept great in the days leading up to surgery, even through all the tests and everything. Last night, the night before, I didn’t sleep too well because I was so excited. And tonight, I’m just blown away by everything that happened — the people we’ve met, the three surgeons in the room: Dr. Christopher Woodson, Dr. Thomas Grotz, and Dr. Raffy Mirzayan. They all came out of the case blown away, saying they couldn’t believe what they’d just seen.

I cannot believe the support from our entire office. Every single person from our PFD office was there. Tony’s crew, the kids, Shannan — just to have this kind of day was incredible. And thinking back to Tony filming all of it — from when we first started setting up the iKnee in the lab, our first prints, our history with press releases, figuring out how to make this thing happen — there are so many great stories I could spend hours talking about.

I’m just excited to talk about what happened today. Surgery was amazing. I got there early, checked in at 6:15, and was wheeled back to Pre-Op. The staff at Prime Surgery Center was incredible — Neda, Andi, Vanessa, Jessica, Laura, everybody. Dr. Gary Lau, the anesthesiologist, was amazing too. When I got to Pre-Op to get prepped for the case, Dr. Gary Lau came in and told me everything that was going to happen, and I was able to ask him any questions or concerns I had.

I received an epidural — like a spinal tap — and a nerve block, and it went really well. I barely felt it, and then I was on the operating room table. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in Post-Op, and it was beyond my wildest dreams. Dr. Woodson came in and went through everything with me. Shannan was able to join me, and Dr. Woodson showed her how much I could already bend my leg. That reminds me — one thing I want to ask Dr. Grotz about is what the three surgeons were discussing off to the side in Pre-Op. It sounded like they were running through different scenarios of what they thought could happen during the case.

Tony was interviewing one of my daughters, Sarah, my youngest. The whole day was just unbelievable — hard to even describe. Realizing what everyone has sacrificed — my partners, everyone in the company, my family, friends, our investors — it’s amazing.

I don’t have any pain. I know it’s early — it’s only the first night — but there’s no bone-on-bone joint pain. Whether that’s from the epidural or the pain medication they gave me, which they tell me will wear off tomorrow or the next day, I’ll wait and let you know how that goes.

Just being able to walk around, and my knee even looks straighter than I expected — I thought I’d still have the same bow leggedness, but my left leg is straight. The bone pain isn’t there right now. Walking the way I did, seeing the doctors’ reactions, and then getting wheeled outside to see everybody waiting in the parking lot — that was awesome.

I took a painkiller tonight, since I’m told the pain is supposed to start tomorrow — figured I’d get ahead of it. Just one tonight.

Dr. Woodson handles every one of his patients the way he handled me — he’s one of those guys who lives by “how you do anything is how you do everything.” I received a binder with detailed instructions of what to expect, going all the way back through the pre-op appointments. It’s unbelievable. The case went fine, and coming out of surgery, I woke up fine — no nausea, no pain in my leg at all. I was able to stand up, use the bathroom, and walk.

Since I’ve been home, my kids have come to visit. I’ve had visits from Ray, from Robert, and I keep thinking about what an amazing 15-year journey this has been with my partner Danette at PFD — to have it all come true like this.

Today is indescribable. It’s good — it’s good to have a plan come together, and I still can’t quite believe I’m not in pain. But that’s not what I’m going to focus on. I’m going to focus on the rehab. Of course I’m not supposed to be in pain right now — that’s the whole point of the iKnee. That’s why we did this. It’s really cool. So I’m walking around, and tonight I’m going to walk upstairs for the first time and sleep in my own bed. I’ll get up and walk back downstairs tomorrow.

I have a 10 o’clock physical therapy appointment tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how it goes. But today — I knew it would work. I just didn’t know it would work this well. I had no idea. I’ve seen some of the intraoperative video that’s been circulating — seeing my own knee with the iKnee on it, seeing my kneecap flipped over, hearing the surgeons’ comments as they flexed my range of motion, and hearing what they said while I was doing my mandatory post-op walk steps — I never dreamed the outcome would be this good. But that’s what PFD does, right?

PFD does things people don’t dream of, don’t expect, and delivers on them anyway — and I was the recipient of an amazing delivery of an experience. I guess that’s why I can’t sleep. So anyway, that’s my first attempt at this daily log. I’ll do this every day through the course of my rehab, at the end of every day, and let you know what I’m experiencing and what I’m thinking. I’m excited to be in this position. Have a great night, and I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

– Eric Hansen (iKnee Patient One)

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