Aerial, a recliner is wonderful after the surgery. I found mine to be the most comfortable place to sit/recline during the day and sometimes even at night. However, I already had mine, so I did not go buy one specifically for the surgery. I was not very comfortable sitting in bed with pillows, but that may be because I did to really work on making it so with extra pillows etc. - like Hernan, I stayed out of the bed during the day. I used my recliner and my couch, which was also quite comfortable. My couch is fairly small, so I was able to rest my feet on the arm rest and back, which felt really good sometimes. Both are easy to get in and out of because of the arm rests.
For the first few weeks, it really does help to move around and not stay in one place/position for too long. This was especially true for me for the first two weeks, when I sometimes had trouble getting comfortable enough in bed to fall asleep at night. I would go from the bed to the recliner to the couch several times each night. So if you don't have a recliner, I think you should still figure out how to make yourself comfortable in at least one other place (preferably two) as suggested by others here. Think about the fact that you may need to use your arms quite a bit to get up and down at first, so something with armrests or some other type of support that can give you some leverage, would be good.
Annie