I'm wondering about this as well. Would some kind of railing attached to the bed help?
Something like this?
I'm 73, 6' 170 lbs., right inguinal hernia. They put me under because of my age (great anesthesiologists, BTW). Definitely be near to Stony Brook the night before, I stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn Stony Brook, woke up at 4:30am to do that special washing and to be there at 6am. Left the facility around noon. Because of COVID-19, my ride was not allowed in the facility, and I was still groggy when they gave me any instructions, so I didn't get much from whatever they said.
My mindset on recovery preparation was motivated by my friend's tough recovery. He had a mesh surgery, and went home and cut the lawn right afterwards. After a sleep that day, he couldn't get up out of bed due to the pain, had to call his wife for help. He and his wife suggested I get a lift chair for my solo recovery, which I did. My mindset was that I better not tax my core much at all the first week or so.
On the ride home, I was able to go into a rest stop for food. I figured that must be from the anesthesia still in me, but the pain never really got worse than that.
I didn't touch the oxycodone, just cycled the ibuprofen and Tylenol like they told me, and stopped ibuprofen after 5 days when the prescription ran out, and stopped Tylenol a couple of days later, just because I felt no need for either.
A neighbor helped the first and second days. Mainly to lift a few things for positioning, and she made me healthy meals. Maybe I could have done it all alone.
This homemade hiking stick was the most useful item for me. I felt so lucky that I had it and had thought to position it ready for use. I used it to pull me up from, and ease me down onto, the toilet, and pull me up and ease me down the stairs. I used it on my walks the first few days. It's about one foot shorter than I am. That notch came in handy allowing me a surer grip with my whole fist than I would have gotten with a straight hiking stick. (I should file a patent for it!) Perhaps one medical crutch would work similarly.
I spent the first 5 nights sleeping in the lift chair ($250 rental for a month). The first night I was able to sleep on my sides, and slept 10 hours. I suspect I could have slept in my bed, but that was upstairs and at the time I didn't know if I could go up the stairs (I could, went up during the first night to use the toilet, thinking I had a bowel movement coming, but it was just gas).
I had this bedrail set up in my bed. I felt it was useful once I started sleeping there, maybe mandatory if I hadn't slept in the lift chair the first few days. Or maybe I could have used my hiking stick to the same effect, I don't know. Move your legs up into a crouch position first before attempting to roll off the bed.
I had bought this hip kit, but used nothing really, maybe the long shoe horn the first few days and the grabber maybe once.
I had a bath chair set up in the tub, but found that I didn't want to sit for a shower, so my neighbor reversed it, backrest facing towards the showerhead so it served only as a grab handle. I also had a short grab handle set up on the side of the tub. Maybe neither is necessary, but you should map out what you want to grab onto in case you need to.
For constipation, I had bought Miralax and Milk of Magnesia. But Dr. Sbayi had a negative reaction when I told him, saying something like "Nooo, go with natural products." So I didn't open those bottles. It was only healthy foods (not too much roughage), and pear juice and and prunes (I also had prune juice ready, but didn't get to it).
Day 2: No problems. I had my first post-surgery bowel movement at 8pm (shortly after eating about 13 prunes, IIRC). It was not that easy, probably taking 2 minutes to exit (I didn't want to strain), and I immediately wished I had drunk more water. The second BM followed shortly after. I walked about four blocks during the day, slowly and using the hiking stick. Slept 10 hours again.
Day 3: No problems. A longer walk, maybe 10 blocks, used the hiking stick still. Napped even though I had been sleeping well.
Day 4: No problems. Walked about 2 miles, with hiking stick.
Day 5: No problems. Another 2-mile walk, carrying the hiking stick mostly.
I was thrilled with the results. Expecting a nightmare, it was relatively so easy. The worst pain was maybe a momentary 6 out of 10 when I coughed without remembering to first hold a pillow against the surgery site. Mostly no higher pain than a 2 or a 3. The preponderance of time it was alternating between not noticing anything and feeling like there's a scratch on my right side abdomen. Two months later, I still have a Pez-container sized lump of stitching, almost like a mini-hernia in size, or a large pea pod. Dr. Sbayi said that was to be expected. Also, I still have some numbness at that area, perhaps because of that nerve they snip? Or maybe it's just still part of the recovery, I don't know, I'll ask Dr. Sbayi at the 6-month follow-up if it's still numb then.
Have your recovery questions ready for Dr. Sbayi. I had them on my phone, and when I had the after-surgery Telehealth visit, I did that via Microsoft Teams on my phone, and was afraid I'd lose the connection if I switched over to the app that had my questions. I also wished I had asked him how he felt the operation went (rather than just, "The operation went well"), to learn whether my lighter weight helped (I went down 5 lbs. before the operation thinking maybe it would make it easer).
Good luck! I think you made a great choice with Dr. Sbayi and Stony Brook. We're so lucky to be able to get a Shouldice Hospital-trained surgeon to operate on us right here in the U.S.
My bed is pretty low so I slept in the guest room which had a raised bed that was about hip height. I had a stool to help me get up and down plus a bed rail so I could pull myself up, similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CBC5CC/