thanks for all the well wishes
ended up coming through pretty good. surgery ended up taking 6 1/2 hrs (was scheduled for a 4hr surgery) w/ a 2hr recovery. i was in neuro icu for tuesday after surgery until wed night @ ~6PM and then transferred over to the regular neurology floor. i ended up with a ~5-6" incision on my spine and the doc removed a tumor and something it was attached too - wich they are not too sure what it is yet - have to wait for more pathology, but not cancerous which was relief since it turned out to be the one that could have most likely been cancerous. he is a bit concerned pathology not knowing what it is at the moment so i am definately on a mri every 3mos schedule for probably at least the next year or until it is determined what it is.
finally got released yesterday and just basically slept the remainder as i didn't get much sleep in the hospital and rested for most of today between moving around as tolerated.
all in all i am doing much better than anticipated and seem to be getting better pretty quick. i am on just a bit more meds than i normally take so i am not too drugged up which is nice, they basically left all my meds alone and had me double a couple of the pain meds. in the hospital they had me add-on morphine too basically whenever i wanted which was nice as the pain was 10++. at some times it was to the point that i couldn't move, but that severity is gone at least for now and i am sitting at or around 8-10.
i will add more in tomorrow or the next day, i just wanted to drop by and let you all know i made it through and am not doing too bad again thanks for the thoughts
bob