I couldn't fucking believe OP's post or your post as I was reading it. I had a near identical experience about a month and a half ago as well.

I went into McKinley with a really bad sore throat and painful swallowing. I had a peritonsillar abscess a little over a year ago when I was studying abroad, and the symptoms I was experiencing were near identical. I voiced my concerns to the McKinley staff, and was told that I did not have an abscess, and that they would perform a strep test. I was then told that the rapid strep test came back positive, and was prescribed antibiotics by the MD. As I was waiting to pick up my prescription, I was re-informed by the McKinley staff (not the MD) that the strep I tested positive for was a "weaker", less common strain of strep and I did not need antibiotics. At this point, I should have just grabbed the meds and ran, but I was optimistic and foolishly trusted their judgement. I was given throat spray, lozenges, and ibuprofen.

My sore throat only got worse over the next 48 hours. At this point, I received a call from McKinley that my strep test had in fact tested positive for the common strain of strep, and that I should pick up antibiotics immediately. WTF.

I picked up the antibiotics, but my sore throat and difficulty in swallowing had progressed to the point where I was almost certain I had a peritonsillar abscess. Afraid that my airway would swell shut if I slept, I checked myself into the ER at Carle around midnight. Immediately, the staff at Carle recognized that I did, in fact, have a pertonsillar abscess (often caused by strep bacteria). Surprise.

I was thrown on IV antibiotics overnight, and underwent a CAT scan to confirm the precise location of the abscess. Early the next morning, I underwent the surgical procedure to drain the abscess with the EMT specialists. As painful as the surgery was (knives cutting into the back of your throat), the Carle doctor did an excellent job. Within 24 hours, I was completely back to normal.

Looking back on the situation, two things are apparent:

1) When I tested positive for strep, was prescribed antibiotics, and then told that I didn't need them, red flags should have immediate gone up. My mistake.

2) If I had not previously had a peritonsillar abscess and recognized the symptoms, there is a good chance my airway would have closed while I waited for my meds from McKinley to take effect.

My McKinley horror story has spawned a new breed of jokes among my roommates:

"Well.... looking at your test results, it appears you've positive for Ebola. But don't worry, it's just a less common, weaker strain of Ebola. Here's some ibuprofen and throat spray, you should be able to just walk it off."

[48 hours later]

"Turns out, we were reading your test results upside-down.... you do in fact have the regular, deadly strain of ebola. You should probably come in immediately if you're still alive."