Hi Kjweede - as long as you have backed up with iTunes, you have a VERY good chance of recovering most, and likely ALL of your info. I had a similar situation and here's what I did to the best of my recollection. It may or may not work in your situation, but it may be worth a try:
1. If the device reboot that bawlbaby suggested works, then skip this step and go to #2. Otherwise, put your iPad in DFU mode (Device Firmware Update) as follows:
a) Start iTunes and connect your iPad.
b) Press and hold down the Sleep and Home buttons together. After 10 seconds (use a watch with a second hand to time yourself), release the Sleep button, but keep holding the Home button down until you get a message in iTunes that it has detected a device in recovery mode (the screen on your iPad will be black).
c) Click the Restore button in iTunes to download the most current firmware onto the iPad.
2. Once you have iOS 5 on your iPad, follow the steps on the iPad screen to activate. When you get to the screen that asks if you want to set your iPad up as a new device or restore from iTunes, connect your iPad to your computer and select Restore from and iTunes backup from the iPad screen. You should see a list of previous iPad backups and be able to choose the most recent backup you did before upgrading to iOS 5.0. Depending upon the amount of data you have, it may take a few hours.
3. If you get an error that says "iTunes could not restore the iPad "Karen's iPad" because the backup session failed", don't panic. I kept repeating this process all day (probably 10-15 times) until it eventually worked. I don't know why, it just worked.
Good luck! Hope this solves the issue and/or someone else may have a better suggestion.
