On The Last Day Of My Trip Back Home At

On the last day of my trip back home at the end of April, the right side of my neck (under the ear) became swelling overnight, so I went to see my PCP the next day, and was given penicillin for 10 days. The whole family was sick (fever, running nose, coughing…), and I was the last one got hit. Aside from swelling neck, I also had cold symptoms. My PCP said lymph nodes were infected, but antibiotics would fix it.
Penicillin worked on me - fever is gone, and the swelling part started to reduce (more than 50%), however, it didn’t go back completely. At the same time, allergy season started, I increased the frequency of the allergy shots. As it happens, I had an annual check with my allergy specialist, and asked why my neck is still swelling. He said I should wait until the allergy season ends as my body was stressed out because of the pollen, and lymph nodes recover slowly.
One+ month passed by. At the beginning of June, my neck started to swell again. It grew also overnight, but was bigger than the first time. My PCP wanted me to see a specialist and scheduled an ultrasound in a local hospital after the weekend. I had a fever, but was on normal activities. We had to go to ER in the weekend because my daughter got injured during her soccer game. When the nurse saw me, she recommended me to check in as well. I had a cat scan, and some blood test. I was told there was a big pocket with fluid in the neck, and needed to be drained. Therefore, they transferred me to the Eye and Ear hospital.
I stay at the hospital for 3 nights – had one more cat scan, a bunch of blood tests, and one chest X-ray. I also went through the procedure to drain out the fluid; however, nothing came out. During the 3 days, I was given IV anti-biotic. I was dismissed after 3 days because nothing can be determined. I was given amoxicillin for 10 days. After I completed the anti-biotic, the swelling neck seems almost gone, but I can still feel there is something there – small but soft.
I had another cat scan at the beginning of July, and went back to see the surgeon at the Eye and Ear hospital. He said from the cat scan, he suspected it is a sort of cyst that needs to be removed. Of course, my husband asked for the worst case scenario, but the doctor said it was very unlikely it was cancer due to what I experienced and the cat scan.
I had the surgery last week – I was told the thing he removed does not seem to be cyst-ish - it is lymphoma!
My questions are:
1.     Can the lymph node removed from my neck be identified as lymphoma from the appearance without further test?
2.     I don’t have any other symptoms including fever, weight loss, night sweat…., is it typical?
3.     I am very health, except that I have server seasonal allergy. I am on allergy shots for almost 5 years, and during the season (late April and May), I increased the frequency to reduce my allergy reactions. Do you think this is related to my allergy injection?
sorry for any typos...