ear pain and intermittent throat pain

A year ago I started having an earache that I thought would just go away, but after a few days it didn't, so I ended up going to Urgent Care because it was keeping me up at night. They gave me an antibiotic and a steroid to take and after I finished that, I still had the same ear pain. At this time, I also started having a sore throat. And after a few weeks of it I went to see my primary doctor who put me on antibiotics, which again did not help. To make a long story short, I was referred to an ENT who looked in my throat and ear and said everything looked fine but wanted me to have a neck CT scan just to be sure. The neck CT scan didn't show anything on the left side where I was experiencing pain but did show a large thyroid nodule. So things kind of got sidetracked and I ended up being referred to another ENT to get a thyroid ultrasound and biopsy. The biopsy ended up benign thankfully, but I never got any answers on my sore throat/ear pain. The ENT suggested I might have acid reflux and put me on meds for 6 weeks but it didn't change anything.

Toward the end of 2019 the ear pain and sore throat kind of subsided and wasn't bothering me anymore, until around Christmas when my throat got really sore and I went to Urgent Care and they prescribed me antibiotics. It got slightly better but then in January I started having ear pain again. I went to the doctor two weeks ago and was told that my ear looked red and she said it was an ear infection and put me on antibiotics. Well you can guess that the antibiotics didn't help and here I am again with throbbing ear pain that sometimes is a shooting pain towards my throat. Sometimes it feels like a knife or something is being shoved into my ear and twisted. It is only on the left side and at this point I am just stumped as to what to do next.

I still have my tonsils and I know that they really don't remove them much anymore but I have a bad feeling that there is something wrong with my left tonsil. The roof of my mouth towards the left side is always sore and when I touch it with my tongue it feels tender. When I put my finger to the roof of my mouth there is a hard lump towards the left side that is very tender. I had mentioned it to one of the ENTs and he said that is part of my tonsil, but I'm not sure? Also, under the left side of my jaw, it is always sore when I press on it, and it's been sore like this since last March.

I'm just not sure what to do at this point because it seems like doctors just want to either put me on antibiotics or reflux meds and none of that has helped. I'm 39 years old and I used to be a heavy smoker but quit almost 8 years ago so that is always one of my worries, that it could be something serious because of smoking. I have another appt to see a doctor this afternoon for my ear pain but I'm afraid he's just going to put me on antibiotics again. I've considered getting an appt at Mayo in Rochester because I'm not sure where else to turn. I live in Iowa so Rochester is about 3.5 hrs away. Has anyone experienced ear pain or a sore throat like this?