All of you were right, my fears were unfounded and I made it through the procedure without a hitch.

I can't thank each of you enough for the encouraging words though.

To add a little humor to the thread I thought I'd share some of my post-op antics that I was told about as I was coming out of anesthesia:

- popped my head up from a "sleep" and said "I have 350 emails to read" and then passed back out.
- popped my head up again and asked my wife if she wanted to see my happy face (a term by our three year-old that's followed by raising both eyebrows and smiling as wide as one can... then passed back out.
- popped my head up a third time and said very determinedly "I'm done with this, I'm outta here", passed back out
- the popped up one last time as they were transferring me from OR gernie to the one in my room and sang "...to the left, to the left, ...now slide" as I was being transferred

A fun time had by all.

Now I take my catheter for frequent walks and anticipate when I can say goodbye to this guest.

...and the 350 emails are still unread... I'm not even sure where they are or what made me think I had them!