There is one measurement that decides how difficult your first week at home will be, and it is the distance between your pillow and the nearest useful object.
For the first days after almost any operation, getting out of bed is the most expensive thing you do. It hurts, it takes a minute or two, and after a hip, a spinal fusion or abdominal surgery it involves a specific technique you have to concentrate on. So the difference between a phone charger you can reach and one plugged in across the room is not a minor convenience. It is the difference between staying put and making the trip.
This is a list of what is genuinely worth having within arm’s reach, and roughly in the order that people wish they had thought of it. It applies to nearly every operation. The last section covers the things that get bought for bedsides and never used.
The links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. We only list things that are genuinely useful during recovery.
First, solve the surface itself
Before the list, the thing the list sits on. Most bedside tables are too small, too low, and on the wrong side.
If yours is small, the answer is not a bigger table, it is usually a bedside caddy: a fabric organiser that tucks under the mattress and hangs down the side of the bed with pockets facing you. It costs very little, holds most of this list, and puts everything at hand height rather than requiring you to lean down.
If you are going to be in bed a lot, particularly after abdominal surgery or a fusion, an overbed table on wheels is the upgrade. It swings across the bed, holds a meal, a laptop or a drink, and means you do not have to twist to the side to reach anything.
And check which side. If you have had surgery on one side of your body, everything should be on the other, because reaching across yourself is exactly the movement most precautions are designed to prevent.
Shop these: Bedside caddy · Overbed table · Small bedside table
The fifteen
1. Water, in something you can drink lying down. A bottle with a straw, or a spill-proof tumbler. Not an open glass. Dehydration makes constipation worse, makes you dizzy when you stand, and makes headaches worse, and a lidded bottle is the difference between drinking enough and not bothering because reaching for a glass hurts.
2. Your medication, in an organiser. Post-surgical medication schedules are genuinely confusing: one thing every four hours, another twice a day, a stool softener at night, something else only if needed. A weekly organiser filled in advance means you are not opening blister packs at three in the morning, and it lets someone else check at a glance whether you have taken what you should have.
3. A written medication log. A notebook or a phone note with the time of each dose. Painkillers make people forgetful, and a written record prevents both missed doses and accidental doubling. It also lets you spot the pattern, which is how you learn to take the next dose before the pain returns rather than after.
4. A charging cable that reaches the bed. Get a long one, two or three metres. The number of people who spend the first week with a phone at four percent, on the floor, out of reach, is remarkable.
5. A light you can turn on without getting up. A touch lamp or a lamp with a remote. Getting up in the dark after surgery, on painkillers, with a leg or a core that does not work properly, is how falls happen.
6. A grabber. Kept beside the bed, not downstairs. Everything you drop lands out of reach, and after most abdominal, hip and spinal surgery you are not allowed to lean down and get it.
7. Tissues, wipes and hand sanitiser. Unglamorous and used constantly. Wipes in particular, because you will not be showering as often as usual.
8. A small bin. Tissues, wrappers, dressing packaging, the little foil off the tablets. Without one, all of it ends up on the floor, which becomes a trip hazard the first time you get up in the night.
9. Snacks that need no preparation. Appetite is unreliable after an anaesthetic, and several painkillers should not be taken on an empty stomach. Something dry and plain within reach, crackers, nuts, a cereal bar, means you can take a tablet at two in the morning without going to the kitchen.
10. A thermometer. A fever is one of the main signs of a wound infection, and knowing your actual temperature is far more useful to a nurse on the phone than “I feel a bit hot”. Take it at the same time each day for the first fortnight.
11. A pillow you are not sleeping on. A spare one to brace against, wedge under a knee, prop an arm on or hug when you cough. After abdominal or chest surgery, holding a pillow firmly against the incision when you cough or sneeze genuinely reduces the pain, and coughing is something you will be encouraged to do.
12. Reading glasses, hearing aids, and anything else you normally keep elsewhere. They live here now.
13. Something to do that requires no concentration. Concentration is the first thing an anaesthetic takes and the last thing it gives back. A puzzle book, an easy paperback, a tablet with something undemanding on it. Most people find that in week one they cannot follow a plot, and that is normal.
14. A phone with the numbers already in it. Your ward, your surgical team’s secretary, the out-of-hours number, and whoever is coming if you need someone. Written on paper too, taped to the bedside, so someone else can find it if you cannot.
15. Ice packs and their timing. If you have been told to ice, the pack needs to be reachable and the timer needs to be somewhere you will see it, or you will either forget entirely or leave it on far too long.
Shop these: Water bottle with straw · Weekly pill organiser · Long charging cable · Touch bedside lamp · Grabber reacher · Digital thermometer · Reusable gel ice packs
The two that depend on your operation
A bed rail or grab handle, if getting in and out of bed is the hard part. After a hip replacement, a spinal fusion or major abdominal surgery, having something fixed to push against instead of twisting is worth more than most of the list above. It slides under the mattress and takes two minutes to fit.
A wedge pillow, if you have been told to sleep propped up, which is usual after shoulder surgery, chest and abdominal surgery, and for many people after any operation where lying flat pulls on the wound. Buy it before your operation and try it for a night or two first, because it takes some adjusting to.
Shop these: Bed rail · Wedge pillow · Knee support pillow
What gets bought for bedsides and never used
A bell. Charming idea, universally abandoned within two days in favour of texting the person downstairs.
A weighted blanket. Lovely in principle. In practice it is heavy, and after abdominal, chest or hip surgery pressing weight onto the area is uncomfortable, and shifting it when you want to get up is a two-handed job you may not have.
Aromatherapy diffusers and elaborate sleep kits. Not harmful, occasionally nice, but they solve a problem you do not have. What keeps people awake after surgery is pain and needing the toilet, and neither responds to lavender.
A blood pressure monitor, unless your team asked for one. Most people end up either ignoring it or worrying about a reading that means nothing on its own.
A second phone charger for the other side of the bed. Buy one long cable instead.
A large jug of water. Too heavy to lift with one arm or a sore abdomen. Two smaller bottles beat one big jug.
The five-minute version
If you do this the night before your operation and nothing else: long charging cable, water bottle with a straw, medication organiser, a lamp you can reach, tissues, a bin, and a bedside caddy to hold it all.
Everything else on this page is an improvement on a setup that already works. Those seven are the setup.
Preparing more broadly? See 10 things to set up before surgery for the rest of the house, and how to get in and out of bed after surgery for the technique that makes the bedside matter less.
*Always follow the specific instructions of your surgical team about medication, icing, temperature checks and when to call for advice.*