I'd like to create a function that retrieves the post count for a given query. I don't want to use get_posts obviously as its way to expensive for this purpose. However, that's exactly what I'm having to use in absense of a get_post_count function.

My code is...

global $post;
$cat=get_cat_ID('mymenu');
$catHidden=get_cat_ID('hidden');
$myrecentposts = get_posts(array('post_not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts'), 'cat' => "-$cat,-$catHidden",'showposts' => $NumberOfPostsToShow));
$myrecentposts2 = get_posts(array('post_not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts'), 'cat' => "-$cat,-$catHidden",'showposts' => -1));
$myrecentpostscount = count($myrecentposts2);