No Cancer For Me

So I have this deformity in my neck. I've thought for quite awhile now that I had a ginormous lymph node and I had complained to my primary doctor. He would only say that some people just have big nodes. Then a few weeks ago I went to my ENT about my sinuses and happened to ask how painful it was to have a lymph node removed. He has been my doctor for about 13 years and performed 2 sinus surgeries on me in the past. He looked at me quizzically and felt my neck. He asked why he'd never felt that before. I said, "I don't know, you're the doctor." I should mention that I am slightly obsessed with my lymph nodes and have CBC's performed every six months or so since my grandma died from Lymphomic Leukemia and my mom now has it as well.
So he casually mentioned that he would like to stick a big needle into it and draw out some fluid for testing. I'm a pretty good sport as far as medical stuff goes so I say "hey why not?" As soon as he stuck the needle in he made a strange sound and said that it was not a lymph node at all. He showed me the syringe that was now filled with black fluid. "what the hell is that?" I asked. He said it was probably old blood. He then tells me that it is probably what is known as a congenital brachial cleft cyst. This is something that is considered a birth defect. He says I need to have a CT scan so he can map it out because these things can be wrapped all around nerves and arteries and whatnot and he wants to know what he's going to find when he cuts open my neck. Sounds fair to me.
When I go back to get the results he says that now he saw some lesions and a nodule on my thyroid that he has to check out before he can cut out my cyst. In his casual way he mentions that I could have thyroid cancer and he doesn't want to take the cyst out only to find out later that the thyroid should come out. I have been made to understand that if one should ever be forced to choose a type of cancer to have then thyroid cancer would be the best choice. Fabulous. Well, to speed this story up a bit I had an ultrasound and they stuck yet another 3 needles into my thyroid this time to get some fluid and did some blood work to check my thyroid function. All came back fine and I am now free to have my birth defect removed. I will be in the hospital overnight but I'm thinking it'll be a nice break from the kids. Call me crazy but perhaps I could get a little quiet time.
My doctor says these cysts aren't a very common occurence, that he's performed maybe a dozen of these operations which are called neck dissections. I wish they'd come up with a better name. He warned me that there are a lot of nerves and arteries in the neck area and it is fairly risky, I could lose function of my voicebox (wouldn't that please my husband?), tongue, my shoulder, and feeling in my skin around that area. He assures me that he has done many operations on necks and feels confident that he can get this thing out without any complications. Let's all pray he's right and that he doesn't drink too much caffeine that morning and get the jitters.