thyriods - what's it good for?

Well, my 6 month follow up appointment to review the Thyroid scan that I had last week was today.  Results are that the nodule on the left has indeed grown, and is now larger than 3.5cm and therefore needs to come out.  So I am now planning to be out of work for 2-3 weeks at the end of October to have 1/2 (the left) of my thyroid taken out.  Last time I saw this dr I wasn't too happy with him or his attitude, he seemed more interested in showing off for some interns he had with him than in talking with me.  Today, it was just him, and he took the time to talk to me, explain things and while I feel he is still egotistical that isn't always a bad thing when you are talking to a surgeon - hey I want him to be the best at what he does too.
It appears there are some risks - that involve the vocal cords and some other things.  According to my doctor he is better than "what the books say" and that there is a less than 2% chance of any issues with him doing the surgery.  That is apparently based on the number of these operations he does.
I'll talk to my brother about what the dr had to say and about the plan for surgery to get his opinion, and/or that of his buddy that does these sort of things there where my brother practices.
I'll also talk to my mom about it.  She will worry, but then according to her, that is her job - mothers are supposed to worry.  At the moment I'm not too worried about any of it.  I'm glad it is just the one side, and that most likely nothing will be done on the other side unless they end up finding cancer on this side.  Apparently the nodes on the right are stable and not growing.  And the other big thing is that I won't be having to have another thin needle biopsy.  I guess I'm saying I'd rather have the surgery than to have them poke another one of those skinny needles in my neck and push it around trying to collect cells.
The one thing I find somewhat depressing is that my thyriod levels are "great", or if anything my thyroid is over producing.  Which I'm told is good sign that the surgery will end up having no effect on my needing thyroid meds.
Oh and one other thing the dr shared was that might not be such a good thing, and that is that the prognosis of this not being cancer does have one problem.  Apparently I'm "old".  Sometimes I do feel old, other times I wonder where the years went, and forget myself.  Anyway, according to the dr who says he's my age, we are above the age where thyriod issues normally show up.  So being mid-late 40's almost 50 is "old". So perhaps I should worry now that there is cancer.  But then why borrow trouble.