So, exactly how much fun was my surgery?  NONE!  The last thing I recall before slice and dice was being taken from the holding room into the operating room.  I remember none of what happened once I was in there, not even being asked to breathe the sleepy gas.  The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room with a catheter (I must have been asleep when they put that in), an IV, and feeling like I'd been run over by a semi.  They took me to my room and it was still a while before I had my wits about me.  When the doctor finally came in he informed me that the surgery had been more complicated than expected because once he got in there he found more damage than had been indicated on the MRI and CT films, but he said they were able to extract all of the disc material and graft doner marrow/bone at the L4-L5.  There is a wire cage wrapped around the vertebrae and there are pins holding it.  I feel like a cyborg.  
The first two days and nights following the surgery I can honestly say are the most miserable days of my entire life.  I was on a morphine drip which took the edge off the pain, but quite frankly, the worst pain wasn't in my back, it was in my digestive tract.  They fail to warn you that all that happy juice and the pain meds cause a massive build up of gas in your system and when you come out of surgery your digestive/excretory system is basically shut down (sorry if this is too much information).  I thought I was going to split open from the gas buildup, the pain was excruciating.  So basically, you lay around praying to pass gas!!  I didn't sleep the first two nights because of the pain and I finally begged the doctor to give me a sleep aid on night three.  My roomate had the same surgery I did so once our systems began to function we just lay there and farted in stereo!  By day three I was beginning to feel better and they let me go home (to my parent's house).  I didn't eat at all while I was in the hospital (Tuesday - Friday), mostly because I was so bloated from the damned gas I couldn't see putting food in my body and risking constipation on top of that.  
Once I was out of the hospital and not being pumped full of chemicals on a daily basis I improved dramatically.  While I was there I was given the following meds:

morphine drip
oxycodon
tylenol
benadryl
senacot
ambien
some unknown antibiotic
some unknown pill for nausea

I was (am) a walking toxic waste dump and I'm still in serious need of a detox.  I was sent home with a prescription for 120 hydrocodone (pain pills).  Within two days of leaving the hospital (Sunday the 22nd) I had quit taking them.  I am recovering at an accelerated rate and I go in Wednesday (Dec. 2nd) for x-rays to see if everything is healing properly.  I'm wearing a back brace and using a walker to get around the house.  I cannot sit up for long stretches of time and have to be careful not to bend, lean or twist at all.

So was it worth it?  I'm thinking it will be.  I noticed immediately upon regaining my wits after surgery that the constant pain that shoots down my left leg is gone.  I have no numbness and no tingling so apparently no nerve damage from the surgery.  If the graft takes, I should be kick boxing in no time.  Thanks everyone, for all the well wishes, they truly meant (mean) a lot to me.