Sorry guys...
hope you feel better soon! not sure if this will help, but before surgery I had the worst sore throat I've ever had. I thought it was strep, they put me on a 10 day antibiotic and it didn't touch the sore throat pain. I saw an allergist who said its allergies. I was surprised because I didnt think sore throats were related to allergies. He put me on 90mg of allegra and all the "cold symptoms (sore throat, stuffy nose, itchy eyes, etc)" went away.
good luck