The Australian has been struggling with a recurrent wrist injury in recent months, but decided to postpone the necessary operation until the winter because he was determined to participate in the first fully-fledged test of the GP9 bike at Valencia next Monday and Tuesday.
"I want to be okay for Monday and Tuesday," Stoner told reporters in Spain.
"It's a very important test for us, and this is why we've continued with the season, to try and not just finish the season strongly, but to test the GP9 before I have to take the operation.
"I suppose I don't want to destroy myself over the weekend, so we'll see how everything is performing. Maybe the cooler weather is a little bit better for us, it might help on a circuit like this.
"We'll see how we go, as we go along - see how many laps we need to do, and if it's becoming tired quickly or not, and just do the correct amount of practice that we need.
"If things aren't going right then we need of course to do more laps, but if things start to become too much, then maybe we'll skip something."
Stoner said he stood by his decision to continue racing while waiting for the operation, as he had been informed by doctors that the injury would progress in the same way regardless of whether he was riding or not.
"I wouldn't have been riding if it was going to get worse," he insisted.
"I don't want to just sit out a race if there is a small possibility for me to compete. There was no point doing the operation any earlier because we wanted to do this last test.
"So there was no point not racing - you may as well be out there learning, getting more experience, more knowledge of the bike. You learn something new almost every weekend, and this is important going into next year."
The former champion added that he cannot wait to test the new Ducati, having first sampled the carbon fibre chassis during a brief run in Barcelona testing earlier this year.
"When I first rode those laps, all I wanted to do was ride that bike for the rest of the season," said Stoner.
"To have a great feeling with it from lap two - I was quicker than I had been all weekend - that's pretty good.
"The engine wasn't configured correctly at Barcelona. There wasn't the power that we have now, and there were a lot of weak points in it. We only had half an hour on the bike, so I think it's necessary to get more of an understanding of it. All we needed to know at the Barcelona test was that we were going in the right direction. Now we're starting to do testing.
"Everything I've relayed to Filippo (Preziosi) and the team about what I want the bike to do, it seems to be doing. We know it performed in Barcelona, it's going to be great if it works here too."
Stoner will finally undergo the wrist operation next week, two days after the test is completed. Having been carrying the injury since late summer, he is now extremely keen to fix the problem.
"It's been a bit heavy, this last part," he said. "We just seem to be hanging in there, but never really on top of things.
"It's nice to know that very soon now, we're going to be getting things sorted, fixed up, and ready for next year - when there are going to be no problems, no excuses, and we can get on with racing again. I'm really looking forward to that."
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