So my recurring headache problem enters it's third week. I've been off work now for over a week and have been to the doctors five times including once where Sarah was so worried she called an ambulance. It finally seems to be easing a bit but I still haven't had a decent nights sleep in two weeks.

It started on Good Friday and I made my first visit to the out of hours doctor on Easter Monday. They presribed anti-biotics which I started taking on the Wednesday. Sarah found me on the sofa at 7am Friday morning after I'd spent the whole night there in pain and phoned the doctors again. He doubled the dose of the anti-biotics and prescribed Co-codamol for the pain and a nasal spray.

On the Saturday night I was once again in agony and Sarah phoned the emergency doctors again. This time I was prescirbed different anti-biotic and a stronger pain-killer. I started taking these on the Sunday. I saw my own GP on the Tuesday and she prescribed another nasal spray and said she would refer me to a specialist but didn't hold much hope that I would be given an appointment.

I suddenly realised at 2am on Wednesday morning as I was throwing up in the downstairs loo that I was getting worse instead of better and wondering if I was having some sort of reaction to the anti-biotics. The following morning I didn't take any medication and felt much better. I phoned my GP and told them how I was feeling and they said to not take the anti-biotics that day and see how I got on.

I felt great all morning and when I picked Sarah up from work I suggested that we go and get some lunch. But as we picked up Ben from the child minder I started to get the tell tale burning in my nose and by the time we got home my headache had started. In a few minutes I was writhing in agony and Sarah suggested I take one of the painkillers. That's when it all went wrong. The pain didn't go away and I started getting palpatations as well. Sarah couldn't phone our GP as they were closed for lunch so she phoned the emergency Doctor but before they got back to her she decided that 999 was the best option. I ended up going to the hospital in the ambulance.

Once again I saw the emergency GP service and this time I actually felt that they took me seriously. The Doctor gave me a really good examination and prescirbed another anti-biotic. It turned out that it was the painkillers rather than the anti-biotics that were causing me to fell unwell. It was suggested that I go back to the Co-codamol and he prescribed a strong anti-inflamitory but as yet I haven't taken them.

At present I'm still getting the headaches, usually after being asleep for an hour or so. At the moment though it's controlable with steam inhalations when the pain starts. At least I can get some relief if not sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open at the moment. It's a bugger because everything I like doing hurts, music, computers reading etc are all too painful to do.

One of the things that strikes me about this situation is that the health service is so reactive and not pro-active enough. I've had these headaches for the last six or seven years and the Doctor has always treat the symptoms and nver investigated the cause. They will spend money giving me drugs to get rid of the infection and pain but won't even try and find out why I get it in the first place.

I'm going to have to stop typing now cause my head is starting to hurt again. I haven't even got to mention how my company has reacted to my absence!!