Surgery and the protection of loved ones

Well I am looking at having to have surgery on my thyroid. My poor little thyroid which isn't so little anymore has to have bit of intervention. I have an auto immune disease which causes cysts and nodules over a cm in diameter (in me) which is quite large for a little organ. I am desperately trying to avoid a thyroidectomy but we will wait and see what the surgeon says. I am fascinated by the science of auto immune and am looking at the outcome clinically. It prevents me from feeling and being overwhelmed. One day at a time. On a more scary note(!) we were woken at 4.30 this morning by my baby chihuahua barking and crying her head off. It was the most terrifying sound I have ever heard. It sounded like a child. My blood ran ice cold and I couldn't breathe. I pushed my poor partner out of bed screaming like a banshee saying "Help her, help her, please honey help her! I continued to yell out to her while my partner and I stumbled down the stairs. My poor son was awake by this stage and he ran down with us. Coco, my ever beautiful, courageous and fiercely scary dog had cornered the next door neighbours cat in the living room! The cat is the same size. We had to restrain the dog and release the cat outside. Bloody hell. IT is situations like that reinforce how protective I am of my family and that I am definitely driven by a tidal wave of instincts. My reaction was not proactive, I completely panicked and ran blindly into the situation. I am worried that I may do the same if I thought my son was in trouble. I am shocked by the way I behaved. Despite my deficits I have always been good in a crisis. Maybe I am starting to let out some of my fear and not storing it up all the time. Maybe I am learning how to be scared and not think that it will kill me. Tell me a scary story and how you dealt with it.