I never felt any pain around the incision. I had sciatica down both legs and nerve pain in my left thigh and shin. The pain in the back of my legs decreased over the first 4-6 weeks. The pain in the thigh and shin took much longer. It gradually retreated over 7 months until I had the mishap I mentioned in my comment. At that point, it all came back within 24 hrs. I went back to PT but tried a different approach that has worked very well. Instead of doing the same PT as before I found a physical therapist who practiced FCS or fascial counterstrain. You can read about it on the counterstrain.com website. It helped me with the nerve pain in only a few visits and I continued strengthening my legs with regular PT. But since you are only days from surgery I would think you are a long way from starting PT yet.
One other thing I would recommend to you that was very helpful to me. I purchased a TENS unit from Amazon. It did much to relieve my pain and you can use it as much as you need to. It won't cure the pain but it can give you relief while you are using it.

I had two surgeries in 2022. In 3/2022, I had a laminectomy/discectomy L5-S1. My pain was mostly from the surgical staples. Deep breathing was difficult because the it cause more pulling at the incision and staples. Once staples were removed, the pain at the incision. I ended up at the wound center. Had developed an underlying abscess under incision. After two weeks of treatment at the wound center, the pain was almost gone. They found the abscess was the issue. In 12/2022, I developed Cauda Equina Syndrome. It involved compression of the nerves that run through L3-L4. Had emergency surgery because I lost bowel and bladder surgery. Surgery went well. Was hospitalized three days and then transferred to the Rehab Hospital for a week. Developed the same type of searing pain as I did in March 2022. Went back to wound clinic after staples removed and treatment process repeated. After two weeks of visits to wound clinic, the underlying abscess resolved and 90% of the pain. I still have discomfort with prolonged standing and walking. But the pain decrease immensely with rest. The pain stopped radiating down the right leg, but still have the occasional pain and tingling numbness in front of my right thigh only. My surgery pain was minor compared to the pain I experienced from the abscesses. After a couple months post-op from both procedures, my surgical pain was gone. No more surgical staples for me. Make sure you let your team know every movement you make that worsen your pain. Hopefully you will get more relief soon.