Minor surgery, and only one night, but it was one of the longest nights of my life. I didn't sleep, and had lots of time to think about such things as infirmity, mortality, and why television is so generally bad. Here is a list of the things that were on my hospital table at 5:40 am the next morning::

Plastic water pitcher
5 styrofoam cups. some partly full of water, ice, Sprite or coffee. I asked for the coffee about 4 am when it became clear that sleep was not going to happen.
2 plastic spoons
Pink plastic crescent shaped container for throwing up in (not used, thank God)
Plastic packet of medical supplies: gauze, tape, some sort of hi-tech cream
Box of tissue
Box of gauze pads
Roll of tape
Half pint container of 2% milk
empty can of Sprite
Forward Day by Day for August-October
Small figurine - Super Grover - (the Sesame Street character - brought by a friend with the same name to watch over me.)
Phone
Combination TV remote and nurse call button (the remote had only one button, requiring the user to scroll through all channels before turning off the TV. Thus my meditation on the quality of television.)
Mask for oxygen - not used after the first hour or so.
Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger (I'm still picking away at this.)
Glasses case supplied by the hospital - in a flower print and quilted. Suspect made by a volunteer church lady. Though it was pretty I could not bring myself to keep it - it would ever after remind me of that uncomfortable day and night)

I hope and pray that I will never again have to detail the contents of a hospital night table. And I hope the same for all my readers.