When doctors advise heart patients to rest after surgery, they usually don't want the patients leading an army of middle-schoolers in a rowdy mile-long Walt Disney World parade.

But there was no stopping Loganville Middle School band director Conrad Cheney, who commanded a band of 126 students past Cinderella's Castle on March 30 — just four days after a heart catheterization at Gwinnett Medical Center to repair three partially-blocked arteries.

Walt Disney World (ENLARGE)

Members of the Loganville Middle School marching band perform at Walt Disney World on March 30 under the watchful eye of director Conrad Cheney, who had surgery four days before the trip.

Credit/Handout (ENLARGE)

Cheney had given instructions to other teachers in case he couldn't join in the parade, but the kids' energy bolstered him.

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"It was a scare, but I was bound and determined to go on this trip one way or another, even if in a wheelchair," Cheney said Monday while resting during spring break.

Cheney was able to walk in the parade alongside his musical soldiers.

Thousands of onlookers cheered as the band marched in step.

Trumpet player Heather Gray, 13, said she and other band members were elated when Disney officials sized up all of the bands, including high school bands from South Carolina and Ohio, and asked them to go third.

"It was just completely amazing," she said. "Just feeling that rush before we actually did it and then hearing all of that applause."

Cheney had given instructions to a couple of teachers in case they had to fill in for him. Heather said band members were relieved Cheney got to do the honors himself.

"I was very scared that he wasn't going to get to make it," she said. "He was so excited about this trip. He had fun."

Heather's mother, Teresa Gray, said the band members were a little nervous in the beginning, but were mainly excited.

"The kids did such a great job from start to finish," she said.

That's a long way from the band's humble beginning. Cheney started the marching band in 1990 with just five students — a drummer, saxophonist, clarinet player, flutist and a guy who played both the keyboard and trumpet.

The band is now brimming over with 200 students.

"I get a lot of energy out of the kids," Cheney said. "They keep you going."