My throat is hurting me a lot?

How to soothe my sore throat and keep it away?

• I'm 13 and I woke up yesterday with a really sore throat. I tried gargling warm salt water because that usually ALWAYS works when I have a sore throat, but it didn't help at all. Last night I started doing it every 20 minutes because I thought maybe that would help. I've been sucking on cough drops all day and it helps while I'm sucking on it but as soon as it's gone my throat starts hurting again. It hurts when I swallow, talk, breathe in. I looked in my throat and I didn't see any white spots or anything but I thought it looked kind of red. It's hard to see though because I don't have a flashlight or anything. But it looked like the whole back of my throat was red, starting from where the hanging thing is lol sorry I forgot what it's called. From there back it looks red. I drank two glasses of honey vanilla chamomile tea with some extra honey and I felt WAY better, but as soon as I finished my throat started hurting again. I was sucking on an ice cube earlier and that helped too but it's only temporary. What can I do that will make it go away all together? And if I talk a lot my throat stops hurting. But if I don't talk for a while when I do talk it hurts really bad. What can I do?? Help!?

• Answer:

  You probably have strep throat. A doctor can prescribe antibiotics. They can also prescribe lidocaine, a throat numbing thing that tastes awful but works really well. If you plan to suffer through it, I suggest honey garlic. Get a cup of honey and put a few cloves of garlic in it. Let it sit for 24 hours and then eat the honey with a spoon. Doesn't taste as bad as it sounds, is actually kinda good. You can put it in tea too.