Throat soreness for 2 weeks. Might masses found in throat (pics. included)

I am a 24 year old male who has had a sore throat for just over 2 weeks. Around 2 weeks ago a colleague had strep throat but did not come back to work until 24 hours after taking antibiotics. 

Shortly after being in the general vicinity of this colleague, I started to have very minor pains in my neck / jaw bone region. I did not think much of it. 3 days after these pains, I started to feel really tired and weak, again I thought these symptoms would fade on their own. I can not confirm if I ever had a fever during this time. After about another 5 days of feeling weak, the formerly sick colleague, her husband, and I went on a long trip to the Everglades, and my weakness and tiredness faded fairly quickly and I appeared to regain full health, but still minor throat aches. 

After another few days my throat began to hurt a bit more but nothing drastic. I became concerned when 4 days after the everglades trip my girlfriend said I was snoring a lot, which is something she says I have never done in the past. I decided to look into my throat that evening with a flashlight. I observed white masses that looked like big Phlegm globs. I tried clearing my throat a lot, but no success. I eventually tried to gently scrape these globs and remove them, again no success. 

I began to drink tea with honey and lemon and gargle salt water, but my throat did not get better after 24 hours of this. I then went to an urgent care facility to get tested for strep. They ran a (+/-) test for strep and the flu, which both came back negative. The doctor then prescribes penicillin anyways. He recommends 5 days of penicillin pills once a day and 4 days slowing drinking a liquid penicillin solution and gargling with mouth wash.

I have not begun the penicillin treatment yet, because the pharmacy was closed last night, and I did not pick up my pills before work this morning. 

My throat hurts. It is difficult to swallow, but I can still drink and eat. Breathing is almost completely normal. The pain is stretches down the entire throat. I try and drink a lot of water (2 liters or more a day) to keep my throat moist and general health reasons.

Based off my story and my pictures, should I begin the antibiotic treatment or wait and get a throat culture? Do you suspect it to be strep of something else? Penicillin is a broad spectrum antibiotic. Would the penicillin help or hinder my condition?

Thank you all for your help and time. 

Eliott

As a side note, the pictures are slightly blurry and because they are not direct shots, they do not give a good indication of the size of the white masses and how encompassing they are in my throat. If better pictures are needed I can try and supply them. 

Summary:

Throat hurts. It has been 2 weeks. White masses in throat. Docs immunological test came back negative for strep and flu. No cultures taken.

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