If Mrs. Smirnoff is unable to verbally communicate but can still mobilize her arms enough to point, the best method of managing her postoperative level of pain could be using a pediatric pain scale like the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating.
The Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale and other pediatric pain scales like it feature an assortment of faces with different expressions starting with a large smile on the left side of the image indicating no pain and progressing towards the right side with worsening grimaces indicating more serious levels of pain. Surrounding each face is a numbered rank or ranks (a single digit or a range of digits) along with a phrase describing how they feel. With this, the patient can just point to a face and answer "yes or no" style questions posed by healthcare personnel.
These simple pain scales allow the provider to assess the patient's current pain level as well as gauge the effectiveness of an analgesic (pain relief) medication. This allows permits the patient to still communicate to their healthcare personnel where any barrier to other communication methods may arise.
An image of one such pain scale is included below!