Yikes! No fun.

I had an emergency lap to remove a ruptured ovarian cyst last year. I was in a horrific amount of pain prior to surgery and consequently doped up on a crazy amount of pain meds both before and after, so if they gave me anything like your muscle relaxer I didn't notice.

My big piece of advice it to take it easy. We had my mother come to stay for 5 days to take care of me, and by the end of that I was back on my feet. I lost about 10 pounds while in the hospital and recovering and didn't get my energy back until I got back up to my normal weight (BMI of 19) which took a few months. I think that I would have recovered better if I had eaten more. Took some short bike rides starting 7 days after surgery and ramped up from there. I needed about 2 weeks before I was ready to go back to full days at work.

You've probably already figured it out, but to sit up easily in bed, roll onto your side first and then push with your arms. My doctor said heavy lifting was OK after 2 weeks, but I found out the hard way that I needed more time. So, be careful picking up anything that weighs more than 10 pounds.

I had two surgeries that year and both times the nurses were shocked at how fast I perked up afterwards. They're used to working with sedentary people. Being in shape has its benefits. Best of luck with your recovery!