Chronic illness & work

[WWLD]

This may sound really silly, but does anyone with a chronic illness find themselves really struggling with calling in sick for work if you're 'just' not feeling well? Colleagues and friends/family (conscientious people) call in sick for things I don't feel able to. I don't know why - maybe the stigma of thinking I'm already perceived as 'less than' (not that my current workplace have ever suggested that), the fear that I might need the time off for a major flare up in the future, or the fact that I work shorter hours, so should be able to push through?

I'm currently on day 8 of a thumping headache which painkillers aren't really touching (finally got a GP appointment tomorrow morning), and have crawled through the work day only to collapse when I got home. I know I'm being silly, is my 'what is normal' so completely out of whack, I'm doing myself a wrong?

Yup. I basically try and avoid having any sickness for anything "normal" as need to take so much anyway. I do have a particularly terrible sickness record recently though as chronic health stuff been really awful for couple of years and managing even v part time has been almost impossible. Anyway i've fallen foul this month tho as have had a sinus/ear infection for a month that I can't get rid of despite multiple courses of antibiotics, steroids etc and have got to point this week where just feel too dreadful and can't get out of bed so probably made problem worse by trying to work (very ineffectually).