[reedf1]

To me the obvious "cure" for your sore-throat in this story was doing nothing. This has surprising efficacy. Antibiotics are serious drugs. They are inordinately useful, but they also have side-effects. Antibiotics can wheel your body completely out of equilibrium - your sore throat could have been due to yeast or been some kind of fungal thing which the antibiotics inturn made worse (or caused some kind of fungal -> bacterial cycle). In this case homeopathy gave you some utility; it gave you psychological permission to do nothing while feeling like you were doing something.