First a confession, despite the user name, it is my fiance that is pregnant not me.
My fiance - floodwoman23 - is 7 weeks pregnant.
She has a history of headaches and migraines, and petit-mals since childhood. From about mid-February onwards was complaining of a headaches that would only go when she had paracetamol, and would then crash back in.
This began to affect her sleeping, so the doctors signed her off work diagnosing sinusitis, despite not really having any mucus.
One week later, the paracetamol stopped touching the headache and she was in agony, unsteady on her feet and had a brief blackout (I was fortunately there to catch her).
We went back to the doctor, who wanted the hospital to take a look.
The hospital kept her in for 24 hours, diagnosing a gastric virus as she had been sick, although was not particularly diahorreary. Having been sent home with codeine, paracetemol and cyclizine, she went straight to bed and slept almost constantly.
She seemed uncoordinated on the new pills, unsteady on her feet, and even managed to fall out of bed a couple of times.
She was able to help me lift her back into bed, but couldn't manage on her own.
I called the hospital, who said to speak to the doctor's surgery again.
They advised it was a strong reaction to codeine, and suggested she stop taking them.
12 hours later, she seemed no less drunk, and her coordination was getting worse.
I called a ambulance who took us straight to A&E.
The A&E doctors did an MRI and found bleeding on her brain, a thrombosis possibly caused by pregnancy, and has had a stroke.
She spent the last weekend in neuro intensive care in Oxford. We were given the "she might die" speech by the consultant, but she turned a corner and is now out of danger. She still has her marbles and is getting her coordination back (and is complaining about the food).
I cannot stress enough how important it is not to let doctors fob you off.
If you or your partner are suffering from a headache that will not go, don't let them tell you it is sinusitis or gastric unless there are other corroborating symptoms.