That's what I'm saying. It has felt EXACTLY like strep throat all along. The doc did the culture in front of me, but it seems to me that a little drop in a tube with litmus paper doesn't exactly have a 100% accuracy rate.
It's not, but it's normally a good indicator (I think it's around 90% correct), but you can get both false +'s and -'s. He should have ran another culture from your throat for the lab to grow and check, but was probably trying to save you the lab fees. Now that I have ALL the information, I concur, you probably had some sort of bacterial infection (maybe not strep though). Glad to hear your feeling better.