Hi Steve,
Welcome. And good luck on your upcoming surgery. You'll probably go through a range of emotions in the months ahead, but I can definitely relate to your excitement. As I was in the surgery prep, I mentioned to the Dr. and anesthesiologist that I felt an excitement that I hadn't felt since my last tournament hockey game some years ago. I meant that to inform the anesthesiologist that I had a lot of adrenaline coursing through my body at that time. He smiled and pointed at his vial of that relaxing drug they give before wheeling you into the OR, and said with a grin "I have something to calm you down." After he put that into the IV, I started to give advice on making sure to shave my surgical area so that bandages wouldn't stick, and then my wife told me to stop talking :-) .
For encouragement, I was in a very similar position to yours a few years ago. Within a period of 2 yrs, I went from very active to a state that sounds very similar to yours. I'm now 2 1/2 yrs or so post op, and it's going great. It's to the point where I almost take for granted the active life I have regained. But the past few days, I've been really aware of just how well it's going. Just a few examples that might give you further hope / excitement for getting this done:
* Although I've never had a "bucket list," when I couldn't hike much anymore, I thought "darn, I always wanted to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon; guess I won't do that."
Next week, my wife and I and another couple are hiking to the bottom of the canyon.
* Today, I received registration confirmation for 109 mile Tour de Tucson bike ride (timed event), upcoming in a couple months.
* Tonight, starts a new hockey season, and I've moved up a level to play in the same league I last played in 5 yrs ago before the hip arthritis started debilitating too bad.
The list goes on. What's really important are things like being able to shoot hoops w/ my son, chase the kids around, not being in pain - and cranky - when doing yard work.
Keep lookin up,
-Dirk