Sorry if this has been covered a bunch of times, but I'm new here.

Question

Yesterday I updated to ios5 and I lost a ton of apps.  Are they gone forever?

Answer 1

If you have never synced to your computer before, then you probably did erase all of the apps but you CAN still download them again for free if you use the same Apple ID and iTunes account that you bought them with.
If you still had your apps on the iPad you could have transfered the purchases to iTunes but apparently they are gone. Lets double check.
1) Without connecting your iPad to your computer, start iTunes. From the iTunes menu - Click on Edit. Click on Preferences. Click on Devices. Check the box next to "Prevent your iPod etc. from automatically syncing." Click OK. Quit iTunes.
2) Now connect your iPad to your computer and start iTunes again if it doesn't start on it's own.
3) Click on the device name on the left side - under the devices heading - to select your iPad. Then click on the Apps Tab - in the right side of iTunes - at the top. See if there are any apps showing in that part of iTunes.
4) If you have apps in there - click on the boxes next to the names of the apps to select them. Then click on the box next to the Sync Apps heading. Finally - click on Apply in the lower right corner of iTunes. This will ttransfer the apps to the iPad.
Try that and let us know what you find.