I have a very high pain tolerance and everyone is really different. The most important thing is to keep moving forward. Get up and walk even though you are in pain. I would ask the nurse for my pain meds and get up and walk laps around the floor and then added stairs to it. I have spoken to some other people and they were in the hospital a lot longer than I was after the surgery. I wanted to be able to do things with my son, so I didn't want to just sit around. Other people that took longer, after hearing their stories, gave into the pain more. They wouldn't get up and walk, because they were in pain. My doctor told me there was a small window to get the lungs fully functioning. I didn't want to lose the opportunity and my lungs actually grew a little.