I have had a persisting sore throat for 5 months...

The day it started I was sitting at work, and in the space of an hour I began to feel very tired and was beginning to get a sore throat. I went home to bed and stayed there for two days. The doctor diagnosed me with an acute case of strep and prescribed a course of antibiotics, which cleared up the puss from my throat and relieved the intense pain.

Since that time I have had a constant mild sore throat (only on left side), have slept poorly, am often tired, and have reduced exercise tolerance. One week, I had very sore inner thighs. I am 22. I returned to the GP a number of times, and ended up having a whole range of antibiotics along with blood tests to rule out possible causes. All came back negative.

Recently I visited the ENT specialist, who did a laryngoscopy. He told me the sore throat is not bacterial or viral, but is caused by referred pain from a muscle spasm on the left side of my neck (I had no idea). He said this is usually caused by injury, cold, or stress, is associated with sleep disorder (where I miss deep sleep) and is not treatable but manageable. I realised I had a bad snowboarding accident 5 months earlier that may have caused it, but am unsure how this relates to the strep.

To help, the ENT specialist told me to be in bed early, keep my neck warm, have massages/acupuncture, and not to stress. When I do these things, the pain seems to lessen but never fully goes away.


I am wondering a few things now...

What this condition is?
Whether there are others suffering a similar problem, and if there are, is there anything you've done that's been effective relieving the pain?

And for the experts...

Whether my symptoms are consistent with the specialist's opinion?

I would really appreciate any feedback

Thanks,

Jimi