It seems apt that on the closing day of 2008 I received the news that I had been hoping for in a phone call from my ENT doctor.
The biopsy samples taken from my vocal chords have come back negative on any malignant or pre-malignant growth. It appears that the source of all my problems has been a cyst which has been present for quite some time and was surgically removed during the recent examination.
I have been given a clean bill of health and told to start vocal exercises in order to stretch the repairing tissue.
(Source)