Pain - Eleven days post-op

Pain is very subjective.  My criteria for the level of my pain dates back six or seven years when I had severe back pain. The pain itself was in my left thigh, but it emanated from my back and that pain is the worse I have experienced since childbirth.  I spent 6 weeks flat on my back.  But I learned what a ten was on my personal scale. The pain in my leg went from a murmur to a whisper  to talking,  to an angry voice and then to YELLING.  But when that leg would SCREAM at me, it was a nine. It was unrelenting, and was hardly ever a 2 or 3 for that period of time, and that is also when I was first introduced to pain meds, and the pain meds were what allowed me a few hours a day of normal activity.  The rest of the time I was in bed or on the couch.  So I had my own personal pain scale for when the hospital staff asked me my pain level.  Today is 11 days post op, and the highest it has been is maybe a 6, and that was the second night when the femoral had worn off and I hadn't yet gotten the pain meds right, and that included PT.  Much lower than my expectations.  Of course, earlier, I had "kept ahead of the pain" with pain medications, but that's what they are for, and if taking the pain meds allowed me to put in a better effort to get better results, go for it.  Now, though, I am taking maybe two a day, one at bed time to help get a good night's sleep, and one before physical therapy.  And my pain level has been practically nil.  The most surprising to me is that I was in more pain before the knee surgery than I am now.  Yesterday, after going with the PT to the fitness center here at HH and trying out the bicycle, Bill and I went to Target, and I could walk around Target in less pain than I did prior to the surgery.  This is a result I expected to achieve eventually, but not ten days post op.